Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The US has to support Taiwan’s democracy

Nat Bellocchi 白樂崎

It has been a couple of weeks since Oct. 4, when the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, chaired by US Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, held a hearing titled “Why Taiwan Matters.” A good moment to do a retrospective.

That the hearing took place at all is significant in itself. It certainly is an antidote against the noise from academic circles to the effect that support for Taiwan in Congress is waning, or suggestions by some academics in ivory towers that the US should reduce its commitments to Taiwan.

Taiwan's Ma Ying-jeou, When Apologies Are Not Enough

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

I remember listening to Ma Ying-jeou explain why his 6-3-3 policy failed miserably; his advisers simply missed the boat, made bad evaluations, and caused Ma to make a false promise. Is a man responsible for the poor judgment of his advisers? Technically, Ma did not make the judgment that 6-3-3 was achievable in his first term. (Note that after it was seen to be failing miserably, Ma changed the time-line and said he really meant he would do that by the end of a 2nd term) Of course if it failed by that time as well, Ma would be long gone and with a hefty pension to live on.

Taiwanese paying for a Chinese anniversary

William J.K. Lo 羅榮光

President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government recently used several billion New Taiwan dollars worth of taxpayers’ hard-earned money to celebrate what it calls the 100th anniversary of the “Republic of China” (ROC).

However, based on what I have seen and experienced over more than six decades, the essence of and truth about the “ROC” can be demonstrated through the following three points:

First, the ROC is a foreign entity.

Self-determination key to survival

Chen Yi-shen 陳儀深

In UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, the UN decided “to restore all its rights to the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and to recognize the representatives of its Government as the only legitimate representatives of China to the United Nations, and to expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) from the place which they unlawfully occupy at the United Nations and in all the organizations related to it.” The “representatives of Chiang Kai-shek” were of course the representatives of the Republic of China (ROC), so some people say that the whole incident had nothing to do with Taiwan, and that Taiwan and Taiwanese need not concern themselves about it.

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