Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taiwan’s self-defeating behavior

Taipei Times Editorial

At a time of great uncertainty over Taiwan’s ability to purchase advanced combat aircraft from the US, one would expect Taipei to do its utmost to send the right signals to Washington, not only that it takes national defense seriously, but also that it would ensure that US technology does not end up in China’s hands.

Struggling to convince the electorate that it is committed to national defense, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration in recent years made no less than 21 appeals to Washington to agree to the sale of 66 F-16C/Ds. However, there is evidence that those sound bites aside, Taiwan’s efforts to secure the sale under Ma have been halfhearted at best. As a result, various reports have recently stated that the deal is all but dead and that Taiwan will have to make do with upgrades to its aging F-16A/Bs, which could include top-of-the-line radar technology.

Tsai unveils DPP’s policy guidelines

Taipei Times

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday officially unveiled her party’s 10-year policy guidelines, saying they represented “a commitment to Taiwan’s next generation” and illustrated the contrast between the DPP’s values and those of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

In one of her most important speeches, the DPP presidential candidate said the guidelines, which took two-and-a-half years to formulate and contain 18 chapters on a variety of issues, are a reflection of the party’s experiences and mistakes while in power.

“The guidelines are our commitment to the next generation and they are formulated with the aim of strengthening Taiwan and making it a coherent country,” Tsai said.

Ma’s diplomacy wins no respect

Liberty Times Editorial

Diplomacy is an important realization of a nation’s sovereignty. The main goal of diplomats is to uphold the independence, integrity and security of their country. If the steadiness of a nation’s diplomacy is judged by whether another country rejects a request to establish relations, then that country has lost autonomy over its diplomatic affairs. Could it then still be called a country?

This logic is common sense in today’s world, yet President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), vying for re-election, does not have even the most basic understanding of this.

A proud Ma recently said in a public announcement that his “flexible diplomacy” has allowed Taiwan and China to escape vicious competition for diplomatic allies.

US expert urges F-16 sale

Taipei Times

A leading US expert on the Chinese military says that by 2020, Beijing could have 2,000 or more missiles, nearly 1,000 modern combat aircraft, 60 modern submarines and a potential invasion force of many hundreds of thousands of troops “pointed at Taiwan.”

Richard Fisher, a senior fellow with the International Assessment and Strategy Center near Washington, warned in an article in the Wall Street Journal that the US “should be under no illusion about Beijing’s motives.”

He says that while President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has made historic progress in defusing tensions with China, Beijing has signaled that it wants to end Taiwan’s democratic era.

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