Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Sacrifices of overseas Taiwanese pay off

Paul Li 李壬癸

I was once invited by the New York-based Gheelan Association of USA to give an after-dinner speech. During the dinner, a member asked me what I thought of then-premier Frank Hsieh’s (謝長廷) “constitutional one China” idea.

I replied with my own question: What does “constitutional one China” mean?

This was met with laughter from some of the people around the table. They thought it odd that they possessed a fuller grasp of Taiwanese current affairs than a Taiwanese living in Taiwan.

Many expat Taiwanese entrepreneurs and businesspeople take a deep interest in the future of their mother country and the association is just such an organization.

Make Taiwan a tough nut to crack

Taipei Times Editorials

Robert Tsao (曹興誠), founder of major chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp, has unveiled plans to donate NT$3 billion (US$97.1 million) in a bid to boost Taiwan’s defense capabilities in the event of a Chinese invasion.

As part of his efforts to help Taiwanese civilians prepare for war, the semiconductor magnate would be donating NT$600 million to the private Kuma Academy to help train 3 million “black bear warriors” in the next three years, while another NT$400 million would be used to train 300,000 “marksmen” with shooting skills. After passing tests, these civilians would work alongside the military and provide support during wartime.

Underreaction to Chinese threat

Huang Yu-hsiu 黃郁琇

Music reflects the personality of a nation’s people. When I was studying abroad, I noticed a difference in the musical styles of Taiwanese and Westerners. It seems to me that most of the music played on Western radio or TV has a lively rhythm and positive lyrics, whereas the music in Taiwan commonly has melancholy tones and sad lyrics. Taiwanese singers lament their misfortunes and destinies, as well as their misery and uselessness. Even love songs are filled with self-devaluing and worthless sentiments.

Perhaps this is due to the history of colonization, as well as the White Terror of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule, which led to a sense of learned helplessness that permeates Taiwanese culture, psychology and music.

Chips give Taiwan an edge that it needs to use

Yang Chung-yueh 楊宗岳

Washington’s China policy usually oscillates between containment and engagement. Prior to former US president Donald Trump’s trade dispute with China, the US placed greater emphasis on cooperation than competition with China, especially at the economic level, as it believed that the mutual benefit of cooperation would benefit Americans.

Since the start of the dispute, mutually beneficial trade has gradually been replaced with competition, undermining the basis for cooperation between the countries. Now, US-China competition has evolved into a technology war that is defining the direction of relations between the two powers for the foreseeable future.

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