Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

New KMT scheme to keep local power in Taiwan

Taiwan News Editorial

Many Taiwan citizens may be perplexed by the the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) declaration Wednesday of "absolute opposition" to revisions proposed by the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) to the Local Government Law.

During a meeting of the rightist ruling party's Central Standing Committee Wednesday, President and KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou demanded that the KMT legislative caucus petition for a special legislative session next week in order to pass newly proposed but highly controversial changes to Article 58 of the local government act.

Referendum law needs to be reformed to be useful

Taipei Times

Last Thursday, the Cabinet’s Referendum Review Committee approved the Consumers’ Foundation petition for a referendum on US beef imports by a vote of 16-0.

The proposed referendum has now entered the second stage, which requires 860,000 valid signatures.

Selling snake oil to the electorate

Taipei Times

In recent weeks, the government has begun to resemble a snake oil salesman in its frantic efforts to promote a so-called panacea for Taiwan’s economy — an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) that it is determined to sign with China.

In the months since the agreement was floated, the government has used a number of tactics to promote the pact, including an ethnically stereotyped cartoon, sleep-inducing public forums and, more recently, talk of enlisting the help of a thug politician to preach the ECFA gospel to a population that remains unconvinced.

Taking path of Finland could leave Taiwan cold

Chen Yi-nan 陳逸南

In a recent article entitled “Not So Dire Straits,” published in Foreign Affairs, US academic Bruce Gilley suggested that Washington consider excluding Taipei from its Asian allies if a “Finlandized” Taiwan leans toward China.

Writing in an opinion piece in a local newspaper on Jan. 4, Department of International Affairs Deputy Director Huang Chih-ta (黃致達) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that Gilley’s suggestion should be taken as a severe warning to Taiwan. If the Washington mainstream accepts Gilley’s suggestion, Taiwan risks not Finlandization but becoming the next Hong Kong.

More Articles...