Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taiwan soldier who died in Ukraine gets Indigenous farewell

Taipei Times

Tseng Sheng-kuang (曾聖光), a Taiwanese volunteer soldier who died in November while fighting for Ukraine, was honored by the Council of Indigenous Peoples at a memorial service in Hualien yesterday.

Tseng was honored with the highest award of the Contribution to Indigenous Peoples for his sacrifice in resisting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as for democracy, freedom and justice, council Minister Icyang Parod said at the ceremony.

Judicial reform vows unfulfilled

Chang Kuo-tsai 張國財

Time waits for nobody and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has only 18 months of her final term in office remaining.

Will the drubbing in the local elections on Nov. 26 leave Tsai a lame duck for the rest of her presidency? Will the opposition parties use their newfound influence to impede the governing party’s policy agenda? Will the tunes sung by the central and local governments become louder and more dissonant?

The nation will soon find out.

UK counts on Taiwan friendship

Alicia Kearns

Democracies are at their most powerful when they stand together. Both Taiwan and the UK are strong and healthy democracies that have much to learn from each other. The benefits of democracy and democratic values are clear. Taiwan’s track record of peace, stability and liberty demonstrates the intrinsic value of democracy. I have no doubt that the relationship between the UK and Taiwan will continue to flourish as they stand united by our shared values and commitment to peace.

I have had the pleasure over the past few days of leading a delegation from the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee to Taiwan to meet its government and legislature to show our firm commitment to deepening engagement between our peoples. Visiting Taiwan has always been a priority for our committee. We wanted to learn more about Taiwan — its people, its government, its way of life and, yes, its great food!

Voter ‘age bias’ must be dropped

Taipei Times Editorials

A referendum held in conjunction with local government elections on Saturday proposed lowering the voting age from 20 to 18. However, Central Election Commission (CEC) data showed that votes fell short of the threshold — almost 9.62 million “yes” votes needed to pass — as only 5.65 million voters backed the proposed constitutional amendment, while 5.02 million voters opposed it.

Prior to the results, the Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare, the Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy and other civil groups had argued that if people face obligations such as paying taxes and compulsory military service at 18 years old, they should also be given the right to vote.

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