Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Lai starts reforms, accepts resignations

Taipei Times

From left, Council of Agriculture Minister Lin Tsung-hsien, Environmental Protection Administration Minister Lee Ying-yuan and Minister of Transportation and Communications Wu Hong-mo are pictured in a composite photo.
Taipei Times file photo

Premier William Lai (賴清德) yesterday initiated the first stage of Cabinet reforms after the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) losses in the nine-in-one elections on Nov. 24, approving the resignation of three ministers.

Carrying on the fight

Taipei Times Editorial

With many in Taiwan and elsewhere focused on digesting the results of the elections and referendums held a week ago today, an award ceremony in Sweden on Tuesday passed almost unnoticed and unremarked.

Li Wenzu (李文足), the wife of Chinese rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang (王全璋) who was detained as part of the “709 crackdown” in 2015, was awarded the fourth Edelstam Prize for exceptional courage in standing up in defense of human rights.

Trump yet to play the ultimate card

Joseph Bosco

When US Vice President Mike Pence addressed the recent APEC summit, he criticized China for its myriad breaches of international norms. The US and the world have lost patience, he said, adding: “Things must change.”

He spoke these words 51 years after then-US president Richard Nixon issued the first urgent “China must change” message. In a Foreign Affairs article previewing the course he would follow in his historic opening to China, Nixon portrayed in stark terms the alternative course of history with an unchanged China:

The Golden Horse event exemplifies Taiwan

Michael Lin 林子堯

In her acceptance speech after winning Best Documentary at the Golden Horse Awards on Nov. 17, Taiwanese director Fu Yue (傅榆) said: “I really hope that one day our country can be treated as a truly independent entity.”

Fu’s statement opened a Pandora’s Box. Fearful Chinese filmmakers rolled out “united front” cliches on stage; the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) publicity department banned Chinese-funded films from participating in future Golden Horse ceremonies.

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