Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Is the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) giving up on wooing young voters? The party would adamantly deny it, but it definitely looks that way in light of the KMT government’s latest move: Attempting to rein in college students’ freedom to participate openly in the discussion boards at the online Professional Technology Temple, or PTT as it is better known among local Internet users.

The site, managed by National Taiwan University, is the nation’s largest academic bulletin board system. Popular among college students, PTT hosts thousands of discussion boards, serving as a forum for young people to share their thoughts and take note of others’ opinions.

Speaking in the legislature a little while back, National Security Council Secretary--General Hu Wei-jen (胡為真) said that China says the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) belong to “China,” not specifically the “People’s Republic of China” (PRC). Hu inferred from this that the issue could be approached according to the concept of “one China with each side having its own interpretation.” Hu said that incidents that have occurred around the Diaoyutais were matters of Japan’s relations with Taiwan and of Japan’s relations with “mainland China,” but not of relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. There was no need to connect the Diaoyutais issue with cross-strait relations, he concluded.