Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

US, Taiwan to shift focus to security, former official says

Taipei Times

After a tariff agreement was reached this week addressing key economic issues, Taiwan and the US can now focus more on security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, a former White House official said on Friday.

Alexander Gray, who served as deputy assistant to the president and chief of staff of the US National Security Council during US President Donald Trump’s first term, made the comments in an interview with the Central News Agency.

Gray called the trade deal a “very positive development in the US-Taiwan relationship,” as Washington has had several disagreements with Taiwan on trade matters over the years, going back to the first Trump administration.

Mother tongues are a vanguard

Liou Uie-liang 劉威良

At the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) New Generation National Strategic Talent Empowerment Workshop in Taipei from Thursday to Sunday last week, DPP Secretary-General Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said that Taiwanese society often uses terms originating from China in everyday life.

“Although this might seem trivial, it has the potential to become a starting point for cultural infiltration, demonstrating that strategic thinking does not exist solely at the policy level. It should also be practiced in daily behavior, and individuals should make judgements and respond at all times based on their respective roles,” he said.

No dignity in KMT plans

Taipei Times Editorial

The forum involving the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that had been suspended for nine years is to resume this month, media reports said, likely as a prelude to a meeting between KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in March.

The Cross-Strait Economic, Trade and Culture Forum was proposed in 2005 by then-KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and then-Chinese president Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) during Lien’s so-called “ice-breaker” trip to Beijing, and was held annually from 2006.

However, it has been suspended since 2017, one year after the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) defeated the KMT in the 2016 presidential election. Its suspension was attributed to Beijing’s perception that the forum was ineffective in swaying the political preferences of Taiwanese.

Stand up to CCP’s intimidation

Taipei Times Editorial

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday last week accused China of “digital authoritarianism” and transnational repression after Strait Plus (今日海峽), a Chinese state-controlled media channel, disseminated personal information about Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋), including satellite images of his home and workplace in Taipei.

It was the latest escalation in a months-long campaign of intimidation and harassment that has followed Shen well beyond the realm of rhetoric, testing the boundaries of what Taiwan and the international community are prepared to tolerate.

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