Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Ma Ying-jeou, the Dalai Lama and Taiwan Part I: Whose Side is Ma on?

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

After Taiwan's government issued a visa to allow the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan, the People's Republic of China (PRC) quickly responded with a condemnation of the action. It had all along condemned any visit by the Dalai Lama regardless of motive, even religious or compassionate. But this time the PRC went further. Though it was the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) led government that granted the visa, the PRC blamed the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for the action, saying, "The DPP's evil motives will definitely be opposed by compatriots from both sides of the Taiwan Strait."

Ma's force struck the public television three days after Typhoon Morakot hit

Claudia Jean

Former Legislator, Lin Cho-shui had an article in the Liberty Times on 23 August, explaining how pro-Ma 'experts' in Public Television Service tried to push the current PTS president out.

Lin explained that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have always tried to gain total control over the PTS since Ma took office in 2008. In October 2008, they used the fact that two board directors resigned to push for a re-election of the board of directors. This was actually against the PTS law. When their attempt failed, they increased the number of directors and filled those positions with some KMT legislators.

Ethnicity crucial to response to Morakot

Paul Lin 林保華

“High class Mainlander” Kuo Kuan-ying (郭冠英) has once again given us an earful of his preposterous opinions, this time in connection to the disaster relief effort in southern Taiwan. This man is not worth the effort and the ink, but a discussion about the effects on the disaster relief of the ethnic identification issue that he plays on is.

At a presidential press conference on Aug. 18, Minister of National Defense Chen Chao-min (陳肇敏) said he was Taiwanese and then washed his hands of responsibility for the weak disaster response. This awkward statement is a reflection of his views on ethnicity. Humanitarianism is a universal value, so what does ethnicity have to do with it? Small wonder that he is insensitive to the disaster.

Dalai Lama visit puts Ma in quandary

Taipei Times

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has given the Dalai Lama permission to visit Taiwan to comfort the victims of Typhoon Morakot.

The government’s decision to allow the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader to visit came after Ma rejected a similar request last December, a move that at the time was widely interpreted as a nod in the direction of Beijing and part of Ma’s strategy to improve cross-strait relations. Ma could afford to do so at the time because he enjoyed strong support in opinion polls.

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