Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taiwan promises to fight name change in medical group

Taipei Times

Taiwan vowed yesterday to take whatever action necessary to defend its official title in an Asian medical student group.

Lin Wen-tong (林文通), director of the Ministry of Education’s Bureau of International Cultural and Educational Relations, said that Taiwan would not oppose the Asian Medical Students Association (AMSA) accepting China as a member, but said that a proposal by Beijing to change Taiwan’s title from “AMSA-Taiwan” to “AMSA-Taiwan, China” was totally unacceptable.

US needs to speak up on Taiwan

Alexander Young

It is commendable that US President Barack Obama pressed Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) on human rights during Hu’s recent visit to the US, compelling him to state China’s commitment to human rights even as the two countries have different national circumstances.

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the new chairwoman of the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, is to be praised for personally pressing Hu to improve “China’s deplorable human rights situation.”

Dangerous diplomatic precedent set

Taipei Times Editorial

The Philippine government’s decision last week to abide by a request from Beijing and extradite 14 Taiwanese to China — despite a request by Taipei not to do so — is a situation that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration will have to handle with care.

The precedent set by Manila is a clear example of the difficult environment Taiwan continues to navigate despite improving relations across the Taiwan Strait. It highlights yet again the willingness of regional states beholden to Chinese money to toe the line on Beijing’s “one China” policy.

WikiLeaks cable from London talks about Taiwan and New Zealand

Michael Richardson

A new WikiLeaks release of diplomatic cables includes one from the United States Embassy in London to the State Department in Washington, D.C. The November 13, 2008 transmittal was marked CONFIDENTIAL by Acting Political Counselor Jim Donegon.

The confidential cable summarized an informal meeting of Africa Watchers, a group consisting of diplomatic staff from the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. The occasion was an embassy-hosted seminar on China-Africa relations.

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