Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Unhijacking the nation’s democracy

Taipei Times Editorial

In 30 days, voters are to go to the polls and exercise their democratic right to vote in the presidential and legislative elections.

While the nation is often lauded for its robust democracy — its democratization is a proud achievement — people often seem to equate being able to vote with being a part of a direct and representative democracy, without considering how their voices have in fact been muzzled as a result of the Referendum Act (公民投票法), which is known as a “bird cage” act.

Developing young minds

Taipei Times Editorial

A Taoyuan city councilor sent the room into peals of laughter, mostly scornful, when she asked officials at a council meeting who Chung Chao-cheng (鍾肇政) is and “whether he is still alive and so famous” that there have to be awards and local buildings named after him.

Widely considered one of the most important advocates of Hakka culture, Chung, now 90 years old, is a literary figure who was born in Taoyuan and has lived there most of his life. He has won national arts awards and medals.

Economic annexation of Taiwan

Lai Chung-chiang 賴中強

Carrying out his father’s dying wish to “turn Taiwanese independence into gradual unification with China,” President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) last year said that he wanted to hold a meeting between the leaders of the two “areas” to “stabilize” the so-called “1992 consensus” and create a permanent political framework that successive governments would be unable to alter.

China’s pursuit of semiconductor firms

Taipei Times Editorial

Can anything prevent China becoming a major player in the global semiconductor industry? The announcements by several Taiwanese semiconductor firms that they are selling non-controlling stakes to China’s Tsinghua Unigroup are an indicatation that Beijing is stepping up efforts to build its own semiconductor industry and reduce its reliance on foreign suppliers.

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