Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Independence beats ‘status quo’ in poll

Taipei Times

The majority of Taiwanese favor independence over unification and identify strongly with the name “Republic of China (ROC),” as well as with the national flag, but are less receptive to the national anthem, a recent public opinion poll conducted by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) showed.

Online news site Newtalk obtained and published the results of the survey — which were not released to the public — on Sunday.

Capitalist scheme hurts the nation

Liao Pen-chuan 廖本全

The nation’s economic development has come at the expense of the government’s prolonged pandering to capitalists. It has given them preferential tax benefits and exemptions as well as inexpensive water and electricity, together with relaxed land-use restrictions. It has handed capitalists the whole country on a platter, which has allowed them to exploit cheap labor, grab land and national parks, destroy the ecology and the environment, pollute crops, endanger health and pass the costs on to the vulnerable and the disadvantaged elements of society and to the public as a whole.

The government has done this to lower production costs and maximize competition through mass production and low unit prices so that Taiwan could become a global manufacturing powerhouse.

Ma’s focus on Xi, not constituency

Taipei Times Editorial

After repeatedly downplaying the possibility of a direct meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while insisting that such a meeting could only take place with the support of the Taiwanese public, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) finally revealed his true intentions in an interview with the Hong Kong-based weekly Yazhou Zhoukan.

Ma was quoted in the interview, released on Wednesday, as saying that although China has ruled out the possibility of a Ma-Xi meeting at next year’s APEC summit, he remains willing to attend the economic summit and meet Xi, adding that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait “need to create the conditions necessary for such a meeting, and we are still in the process of creating these conditions.”

Policy creates mistress economy

Huang Tien-lin 黃天麟

Uni-President Enterprises Corp is going to invest US$30 million to set up a research and development headquarters in Shanghai. The company’s decision once again lays bare the fraudulent nature of “manufacturing in China and receiving orders in Taiwan” — a notion that pro-China academics and media use to rationalize the trend for Taiwanese companies to “go west” and invest in China.

If there is no manufacturing industry left, what research and development is there likely to be? If there is no nation and no sovereignty, what kind of culture and creativity can there be? If industry and the economy are not thriving, how much strategic planning and design is likely to be done?

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