Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

‘V4’ relations solid, but need a boost

Kristina Kironska

Cooperation between Taiwan and the V4 countries — the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary — has been growing. The V4, or the Visegrad Group, is an informal regional format of cooperation between the four central European countries, which are linked by common geopolitical issues, along with shared cultures and values.

Thanks to their donations of vaccines to Taiwan, these countries gained substantial political goodwill locally. Within and outside Taiwan, the V4 countries — with the exception of Hungary — have gained recognition as European vanguards that have increasingly frequent interactions with Taiwan.

‘US skeptic’ and ‘Lai skeptic’

Taipei Times Editorials

The “US skeptic” and “Lai skeptic” arguments are gaining traction in Taiwanese political discourse, and might become a major campaign issue in the run-up to next year’s presidential election.

The former says that the US cannot be trusted to defend Taiwan should China launch an invasion, while the latter says that Washington does not have the faith in Vice President William Lai (賴清德) — a self-described “pragmatic independence worker” who is seeking the top job — that it has in President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).

California meeting is a mistake

Collins Chong Yew Keat

The decision to shift the potential meeting between President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy to California to avoid Beijing’s wrath is a geopolitical mistake that would further embolden China, and weaken Taiwan and the West’s resolve and principled deterrence. It makes Taiwan and the US look weak and all too willing to kowtow to Beijing’s threat of force, and sends the wrong message to the Asia-Pacific region.

The West and other regional and global players must deepen their collective stance, condemnation and deterrence against Beijing’s continuous bullying and coercion of Taiwan.

Xi deserves an arrest warrant, too

Kok Bayraq

The International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant issued on Friday last week for Russian President Vladimir Putin delighted Uighurs, as Putin’s today signals Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) tomorrow.

The crimes committed by Xi are many times more serious than what Putin has been accused of.

Putin has caused more than 8 million people to flee Ukraine. By imprisoning more than 3 million Uighurs in concentration camps and restricting the movement of more than 10 million Uighurs, Xi has not only denied them the opportunity to live humanely, but also the opportunity to escape oppression.

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