Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Former president releases new book

Taipei Times

After almost 700 days in detention, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) would not flee the country if he were released, he says in a new book that he wrote while incarcerated at the Taipei Detention Center.

“I choose to confront rather than escape,” he says, speaking of his legal troubles, including accusations that he committed forgery, embezzled state funds and laundered money through Swiss bank accounts.

China poses challenge to new START ambitions

Peter Brookes

Discussion of the US-Russia Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty — aka New START — has so far pretty much skipped one very important consideration: China.

In the run-up to last week’s Senate committee vote to send the treaty to the floor for ratification this fall, senators quite rightly debated whether New START overly restrains US missile-defense options, has weak verification procedures, cuts too many US missiles or warheads or might affect nuclear North Korea and near-nuclear Iran.

Ex-US Navy chief calls for tougher stance on China

Taipei Times

A top US military figure has declared that China’s continuing missile buildup opposite Taiwan — despite progress on economic and political relations — makes no sense unless Beijing “is preparing for war against the only Chinese democracy.”

Retired admiral James Lyons, former commander in chief of the US Pacific Fleet and senior US military representative to the UN, said: “After a year of dallying, the [US President Barack] Obama administration has started to stand up to China, but it is not doing enough.

Interview controversy takes new twist

Taipei Times

A controversy surrounding an Associated Press (AP) interview with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took a new turn yesterday after Government Information Office (GIO) Minister Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) sent a letter to John Daniszewski, the international editor at AP, requesting that the news agency “investigate the causes of distortions in the interview piece” and make corrections as soon as possible.

At the heart of the controversy is a section of the interview published by AP on Tuesday where Ma’s remarks are portrayed as suggesting that sensitive political talks with Beijing, including security issues, could start as early as his second four-year term, provided he is re-elected in 2012.

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