Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Pro-China politics and the tracking of stocks

J. Michael Cole

President Ma Ying-jeou was “elected” chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Sunday with no competitor and 92 percent of about 300,000 votes cast. The following day, Chinese President Hu Jintao, clearly satisfied with the result, broke 60 years of diplomatic ice by sending Ma a congratulatory telegram in which he pompously said: “I hope our two parties can continue to promote peaceful cross-strait development, deepen mutual trust, bring good news to compatriots on both sides and create a revival of the great Chinese race.”

Lai delivers the wrong message in Washington

James Wang

Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan rushed off to the US on July 10 after the director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Wang Yi, visited the US. Lai’s trip should have been aimed at erasing any propaganda Wang spread about cross-strait relations. Lai, however, got things mixed up and failed to eliminate erroneous ideas about Taiwan and China. Instead, she followed the old routine of focusing on the home market and propagated what a “great” job President Ma Ying-jeou’s administration has done.

Praising Chiang and poisoning the nation

Changqing Cao

Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek may have been rivals, but they shared fundamental values. Even in death, both men occupy prime real estate in their capitals, where they continue to overlook and poison the nations they ruled from a splendid memorial hall.

In 2007, the name of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall was changed to National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall — a symbol of democracy and rejection of dictatorship.

Beijing's whitewash backfires

Taipei Times

Details of recent unrest in Xinjiang will never fully come to light. Like the Tibetan riots last year, the Gulja massacre 12 years earlier or the violence at Tiananmen two decades ago, there will be no public probe to establish the truth of events, and wounds festering in private will not heal.

But long after this summer’s riots, the lingering impression will be that Beijing’s talk of ethnic harmony and national unity is hollow, while discontent with its authoritarian rule is strong.

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