Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Gagging teachers with ‘neutrality’

Yue-dian Hsu

The Public Servants Administrative Neutrality Act enacted on June 10 lays out a beautiful vision for the civil service, but also shows the slipshod, dragnet approach of legislation.

The act’s formulation and implementation can indeed guide public servants to carry out their administrative duties fairly, without bias for or against any political party and without getting involved in political disputes. However, it does not give due consideration to freedom of expression and academic thought as protected in Article 11 of the Constitution.

If incompetence meets stealth...

Taipei Times

Not much has happened of late in the world of business news that could be considered amusing. Yesterday, however, the bizarre and the grimly comical combined in the story of Taiwanese travel agency ezTravel, whose president had just “discovered” that his company had been taken over by Chinese online travel agency Ctrip.com after the latter acquired a majority of shares through a coalition of investors after years of gradual acquisition.

What's behind Taiwan media bias?

J. Michael Cole

Since President Ma Ying-jeou took office in May last year, financial analysts have shown an alarming tendency to attribute rises on the Taiwanese stock market to “closer relations with China” or the signing of agreements between Taipei and Beijing, while drops on the local bourse have often been blamed on rallies organized by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Those assessments — which are picked up by news wire agencies and newspapers — often ignore macroeconomic variables and regional trends that explain stock fluctuations far better than local political developments.

Are Taiwanese fooled?

Tien C. Cheng

When my friends and I last visited our home country I was stunned to see that Taiwan is no longer the same free country since President Ma Ying-jeou was elected by the majority of the Taiwanese people. The local newspapers and TV stations appear to be out of touch and not reporting what has been happening in Taiwan. The economic crisis, the high suicide rate and a feeling of helplessness have deeply eroded the fledging democracy that the previous two presidents had built.

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