Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

China and Chinese are al-Qaeda's new target

J. Michael Cole

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an Algeria-based offshoot of al-Qaeda, has reportedly threatened to target Chinese interests overseas in retaliation for Beijing’s crackdown against Uighurs in Xinjiang last week in which 192 people were killed.

Quoting a security consultancy, the South China Morning Post wrote that while AQIM — a loose umbrella for North African extremist organizations, according to terrorism experts — was the first al-Qaeda-linked group to issue such a threat against China, others were likely to follow.

Let's play a game: Slap our president

Taipei Times

Were it not for the need to maintain decorum and show Taiwan’s best face to the sporting world, the boycott by Chinese athletes of the World Games opening ceremony would warrant symbolic retaliation. No matter the reason for the boycott — refusing to recognize President Ma Ying-jeou at the ceremony, or just boycotting for boycotting’s sake — and no matter how predictable such Chinese behavior may be, the snub directed at a democratically elected leader and the country he represents was deeply offensive and violated the goodwill that underlies international sporting competition.

The limits of Ma's achievements

Taipei Times

President Ma Ying-jeou has touted the Maokong Gondola and the Mass Rapid Transit system’s Neihu Line as two major achievements of his eight-year stint as the mayor of Taipei. To highlight his role as a key figure in making these projects possible, Ma was invited by Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin to take part in the inauguration of the gondola in July last year and the Neihu Line earlier this month.

But neither project has covered itself with glory, with the former struggling to justify the massive amount invested to provide the public with a sound and safe mode of transportation.

As the World Turns in Taiwan I: Junket Time

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) forum has begun in China. This is a party to party forum initiated in 2005 by the two leaders (KMT Lien Chan and CCP Hu Jintao); neither one of them has ever won a democratic election; that should tell you something about the nature of the forum. It is party to party, but in his own way of dodging the truth, Ma Ying-jeou wants to call it a cross-strait forum. He knows party to party talks cannot justify a basis for policy, but he does not want to give outsiders any real power in it. They will only be "special guests."

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