Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Take Chiang off cash: commission

Taipei Times

A NT$200 banknote and coins bearing the likeness of Chiang Kai-shek are displayed in Taipei in an undated photo.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times

Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) should be removed from Taiwanese banknotes and coins, the Transitional Justice Commission said in its final report as the ministy-level organization prepares to close tomorrow.

Chiang’s likeness should be removed from coins and notes when the central bank carries out a redesign of the nation’s currency, said the report, an official copy of which was handed to Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) by the commission’s acting minister Yeh Hung-ling (葉虹靈) at a ceremony in Taipei on Friday.

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.”

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