Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The Pratas Islands situation looks bad

Chang Feng-lin 張豐麟

According to a Nov. 30 report in the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times), aircraft from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) last month set a new record for incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.

Incursions occurred on 25 separate days in October, but last month, the PLA set a new record, entering the area on 26 days, with Taiwan’s air force issuing more than 55 radio warnings for PLA aircraft to leave.

Kissinger advises Biden on China

Joseph Bosco

As then-US president Richard Nixon’s national security adviser in 1972, Henry Kissinger helped engineer the president’s historic opening to China. Yet he managed that policy transition — and as an outside adviser to every subsequent president — in a way that arguably has produced the US’ greatest diplomatic failure and its most dangerous strategic miscalculation.

Nevertheless he persists, and now offers the same, apparently unsolicited, advice to US president-elect Joe Biden.

Taiwanese shut out of UNESCO events

Taipei Times

The UNESCO logo is pictured at the opening of the 39th session of the General Conference of UNESCO at its headquarters in Paris on Oct. 30, 2017.
Photo: Reuters

Taiwanese are to be excluded from participating in all UNESCO-affiliated events, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) has confirmed, sources said yesterday.

RCEP will strengthen Taiwan-US relations

Huang Tien-lin 黃天麟

Just as Taiwanese were worrying that US president-elect Joe Biden might shift US policy on China and revamp its relationship with Taiwan and Japan, the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world’s largest free-trade agreement, was formally signed on Nov. 15.

Pro-China academics and media have said the partnership would condemn Taiwan to being the “orphan of Asia,” but this is based on a myopic, deep-blue ideology. From a bird’s-eye view, the signing is positive for Taiwan.

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