Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

KMT hopefuls’ focus on deep blue

Chin Heng-wei 金恒煒

Are the candidates in the upcoming Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairperson election simply vying for the party leadership or is it about preparing for the grand prize of the presidency in 2024?

According to political logic and the rules of power play, the election for the top job in a political party is to muster the troops for major elections, with the objective of selecting the presidential candidate or primary political power brokers, thereby gaining control over the executive and legislative branches.

The KMT has done away with the formula of 30 percent party member votes and 70 percent public opinion polls in the chairperson primary in favor of looking solely at opinion polls, so that it is best placed for gaining the ultimate prize in 2024.

The forgotten Aboriginal victims

Taipei Times Editorial

It is difficult to forget the harrowing photograph of Jih Chin-chun (日進春) that shows him laughing before his execution.

On Aug. 29, 1952, Jih was shot five times by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) military police by a river, his corpse left among a pile of bodies in today’s Liuzhangli (六張犁) area of Taipei.

Jih, a member of the Saisiyat community, was reportedly the first Aborigine to fall victim to the authoritarian regime’s White Terror atrocities, when anyone could “disappear” over suspicion that they were reading banned books, badmouthing the government, associating with communists or other activities.

If Taiwan is lost, US loses, too: Craft

Taipei Times

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang, left, and former US ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft take part in a question-and-answer session at the Ketagalan Forum — 2021 Asia-Pacific Security Dialogue yesterday.
Photo copied by Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times

Without Taiwan, the US could lose the Indo-Pacific region, former US ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft told an online forum yesterday, advocating Taiwan’s participation in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) that comprises the US, Japan, India and Australia.

Lithuania shows blueprint to oppose China

Thomas Shattuck

The Baltic nation of Lithuania has recently become the European face of resistance against the People’s Republic of China — and also a new friend to Taiwan.

Vilnius is the latest to make waves over changes to its policies regarding Taiwan and China.

The first significant move it made was in May, when it announced that it had left the Cooperation Between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (China-CEEC) initiative, making the “17+1” forum “16+1.”

More Articles...