Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

If Protests and Crackdowns Continue, China Risks Dark Future

Max Fisher

China's democratic revolutionaries haven't made much of a revolution so far. Protests have been attended sparsely, if at all. Online discussion of demonstrations in China, demonstrations elsewhere in the world, or anything remotely related have been largely stifled. The urban security presence has somehow become even more ubiquitous, with uniformed and plainclothes police now supplemented with "Old Auntie Brigade," elderly volunteers who, wearing matching red armbands, report everything they see back to local neighborhood committees. Hopes in China that the Egyptian revolution might build momentum for their country's own struggling democratic movement appear to have been stymied.

Why is no one held to account?

Lin Feng-jeng 林峰正

Presidential Office spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) recently issued a statement in which he expressed views related to the fact that prosecutors have said members of the military tortured former Air Force Command serviceman Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶) and that this led to the wrongful conviction and execution of Chiang.

Lo addressed the fact that the so-called “true killer,” Hsu Jung-chou (許榮洲), was being charged with rape and murder and that former defense minister and then-commander of the Air Force Command, Chen Chao-min (陳肇敏), and eight other officers would not face charges because the statute of limitations has expired.

Retired military staff still visit China, official says

Taipei Times

Despite repeated warnings by the Ministry of National Defense to curb their visits to China, retired senior military personnel are continuing to make such trips — and sometimes as part of a group, a top official has said.

The official, who requested anonymity, said a delegation of generals led by retired general and former director of the General Political Warfare Department Hsu Li-nung (許歷農) visited Beijing over the weekend to attend the Huangpu seminar organized by the Beijing government.

Hsu’s “Chung Shang Huangpu Cross-Strait Ties” seminar launched its first activities in Taiwan last year, with Beijing mobilizing the families or descendants of Huangpu military school graduates to come to Taiwan, the official said.

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Verges on Being a "Useful Idiot"

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

What is it about the US Military that so many of them seem to be totally ignorant of US commitments and policies as well as of the history and nature of China. Last week it was Admiral Mullen, now the latest faux pas came from no other than their leader, the US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Gates claimed knowledge of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA)but then he implied that the new US policy would be to make the US commitments subject to the "sensitivities of China."

Say what? Since when has US policy been determined and influenced by the "sensitivities" of any outside country. During the Cold War did anyone ever worry about the "sensitivities" of the USSR? Even in our dealings with the European Union has anyone suggested that we be concerned about the "sensitivities" of the French or Germans? What is it about China that buffaloes so many military and state officials feel it deserves different treatment? Are there some basic history or policy courses that they are missing?

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