Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

US military buys Japanese seafood to counter China ban

Taipei Times

The US has started bulk buying Japanese seafood to supply its military there in response to a ban China imposed after Tokyo released treated water from its crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant into the sea.

Unveiling the initiative in an interview yesterday, US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said Washington should also look more broadly into how it could help offset China’s ban that he said was part of its “economic wars.”

China, which had been the biggest buyer of Japanese seafood, says its ban is due to food safety fears.

Elections are not a clowning spectacle

Chang Kuo-tsai 張國財

We are now in the countdown to next year’s presidential election, which is to be held on Jan. 13. The candidates are striving to make their voices heard and jockeying for a lead position in opinion polls to avoid being dumped by tactical voters, and that is all fine as long as they stick to legitimate methods rather than anything too ugly.

While Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the candidate nominated by the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has been proposing his political standpoints one by one, the two opposition party nominees — New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) — have not been using policy proposals as their main talking points.

US lawmakers question delays in arms to Taiwan

Taipei Times

A US congressional committee on Thursday questioned the US Navy over what it called “alarming delays” in weapons deliveries to Taiwan, asking why production sometimes languished for months or years after purchasing deals were signed.

Time was running out to deter military action by China toward Taiwan, US Representative Mike Gallagher, chair of the House of Representatives’ Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and US Representative Young Kim, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Indo Pacific, said in the letter to US Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro.

Smear campaigns and fake accounts

Linus Chiou 邱士哲

In the current digitalized world, it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between genuine concerns raised democratically by citizens and politically motivated talking points pushed forth by those with ulterior motives.

There was a time when online users could calmly articulate a political position and others would likewise respond in a thoughtful manner. These days, respectful disagreements and civil online debates are rare. The descent toward a populist online culture is no particular group’s fault. Social media platforms constantly flood their users with information far beyond the limits of a sane person’s attention span. In this ecosystem, sensationalist positions are naturally the ones that get the most spotlight.

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