Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Nuclear waste cannot be ignored

Taipei Times Editorial

Questions have been raised again about the safety of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, which is still under construction. The Atomic Energy Council asked Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) to provide a list by the end of the year of the structural changes it will make to ensure safe operations at the plant, following the release of a paper by a nuclear engineer and adviser to the council that highlights construction flaws.

However, of even greater concern than the proposed start-up of the fourth plant in 2014 is that Taiwan has almost run out of space to store the nuclear waste that has been produced since the nation’s first three plants became operational. And the government has almost no feasible options for new containment sites.

‘Journal’ editorial warns Obama not to appease China by withholding jets

Taipei Times

As China intensifies its campaign to stop US President Barack Obama from selling F-16C/D aircraft to Taiwan, some friends of Taipei are hitting back.

The Wall Street Journal has published an editorial on its Web site, warning Obama not to appease Beijing.

It says that Beijing is “lobbying furiously” against the F-16 deal and that if the US administration gives in “China will conclude it can intimidate the US from assisting its allies.”

To be or not to be Taiwanese or Chinese

James Wang 王景弘

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is in full electioneering mode, focusing on the issue of national identity and saying in Chinese, “I am Taiwanese.”

One can imagine his soul shrieking as he uttered those words, but when he said it in English he chose not to use the word “Formosan” or the word that came into common usage in the 1960s, “Taiwanese.”

Instead he declared himself to be an “R.O.C.er,” an invented phrase that is neither here nor there, a play on Republic of China (ROC), which could also be pronounced like “rocker.”

Taiwan’s ‘freedom of action’ in danger

Taipei Times

A leading US academic is predicting that as Taiwan moves closer to China under the policies of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Taipei’s “freedom of action” will erode.

Robert Sutter of George Washington University told a conference titled “The Future of US-Taiwan Relations” that there is a dark underside to the very positive sentiments that are expressed toward Taiwan by Washington.

“There is a lot of good feeling for Taiwan in Washington, but underneath this positive dynamic, Taiwan’s freedom of action is eroding,” he said.

“It cannot reverse its path. That’s the basic conclusion that I have come to,” he said.

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