Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The Peaceful Need for Japan and Taiwan to Support Each Other

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

No one has ever defined what the status quo in the Taiwan Strait actually is, was or should be though everyone talks about it. So the charade continues that there is a status quo and that everyone supports it (peace included). Despite that, China regularly adds to the number of missiles it has pointed at Taiwan; it makes military threats and anti-secession laws, and jails any and all pro-democracy dissidents within its borders. In keeping with the same mythical status quo, Taiwan under the Ma government says that it believes its 23 million people should control their destiny yet it consistently ignores their input, currently tries to ram a non-transparent ECFA down their throats and promotes pro-unification policies. And the USA, if pressed, will state that Taiwan's status is undetermined, but in its actions the USA neglects any input from the actual people of Taiwan and tries to accommodate the China market. What then really needs to be done?

Ma remains oblivious to the public

Taipei Times

Rushing to respond to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) recent interview with the Wall Street Journal in which he was quoted as supporting a timetable of 10 years for Taiwan and China to consider unification, the Presidential Office on Tuesday said that the president had been misquoted.

Ma’s actual and complete wording was: “Whether there will be reunification as expected by the mainland side depends very much on what is going to unfold in the next decades.

Saito cares for Taiwan, Ma cares for China

James Wang 王景弘

President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government implemented a boycott of former top Japanese representative to Taiwan Masaki Saito after he said that Taiwan’s status remained undecided. Eventually, Saito had to resign for “personal reasons” early this month. This unfortunate outcome is the result of the government’s inability to know what is good for itself, as it is helping China to annex Taiwan while completely disregarding Taiwanese interests.

Based on the San Francisco Peace Treaty, what Saito said is a legal fact. For Taiwan, this state of undecidedness is second in importance only to full recognition as an independent, sovereign state. International support is necessary for Taiwan to protect itself against Chinese annexation.

Taiwan-PRC ECFA needs debate and referendum

Taiwan News Editorial

Late last week, President Ma Ying-jeou finally agreed to hold a direct debate with opposition Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen on his right-wing Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) government's controversial proposal to sign an "economic cooperation framework agreement" with the authoritarian People's Republic of China.

There should be no doubt that Ma accepted the challenge for a direct debate on the proposed ECFA issued over a year ago by Tsai because of the setback suffered by the KMT in the Dec. 5 "three in-one" elections.

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