Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Native languages must be preserved

Liou Uie-liang 劉威良

One reason that European culture is so vibrant is that many local languages are well preserved and continue to thrive. Some small European countries actually have more official languages than the larger ones.

Switzerland, for example, has four, despite a population that is one-third the size of Taiwan’s. The land is divided into German, French, Italian and Romansh zones, in which the central government respects all languages equally without discrimination.

If one writes to the central government in one of these languages, a reply would come in the same language. However, in-person services are delivered within a region’s dominant language.

India’s stance on Tibet, Dalai Lama

Wang Wen-sheng 王文勝

Former US presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all met with the Dalai Lama. The only recent former president who never met him is Donald Trump.

Tibetans living in exile in India are divided into two main groups — the Central Tibetan Administration headed by the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Youth Congress, which seeks Tibetan independence. There is also a group so fully integrated into India that it serves as a special operations unit called the Special Frontier Force, which cannot wait to get its hands on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

Defending Taiwan — a Biden gaffe?

Joseph Bosco

US President Joe Biden has done it again — for the third time in the past nine months he has stated that the US will defend Taiwan. And for the third time, his administration officials have rushed to “clarify” that US policy toward Taiwan “has not changed” and Washington still follows its “one China policy.”

That is the same scenario that played out with two other presidents. When asked the question posed to Biden in 2001, then-US president George W. Bush said Washington would do “whatever it took” to defend Taiwan against Chinese aggression.

In 2020, then-US president Donald Trump answered the question with a menacing tone conveying clarity and resolve: “China knows what I’m gonna do.”

Quad opposes any ‘change by force’

Taipei Times

From left, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wave to the media at Kishida’s office in Tokyo yesterday, before their Quadrilateral Security Dialogue meeting.
Photo: AFP

Leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the US yesterday warned against attempts to “change the status quo by force,” as concerns grow about whether China could invade Taiwan.

The issue of Taiwan loomed over a leadership meeting in Tokyo of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) nations — the US, Japan, Australia and India — who stressed their determination to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region in the face of an increasingly assertive China, although Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the group was not targeting any one country.

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