Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Ma departs on trip to China amid protests

Taipei Times

Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday departed for a 12-day trip to China as scheduled, despite calls for him to cancel the trip after Honduras severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan as an apparent result of China’s dollar diplomacy.

“This is my first trip to China. I was 37 when I began handling cross-strait affairs in the government. Now I am 73 and have waited 36 years for the visit. It is indeed a bit too long, but I am glad I can go,” Ma of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) told reporters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.

‘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.

More Articles...