Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The Act that silences academics

Hei-yuan Chiu

The Act Governing the Administrative Impartiality of Public Officials was passed by the legislature in May and promulgated by President Ma Ying-jeou on June 10. The Act prohibits research fellows in public academic institutions from engaging in politics to support or oppose political parties, political organizations or candidates for public office.

Meanwhile, the legislature passed a resolution requiring that the Ministry of Education submit a bill to the legislature subjecting faculty in public universities to a similar ban.

When It Comes to National Identity, Taiwanese Can Be Their Own Worst Enemy

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

Most visitors to Taiwan leave with good impressions. They say Taiwanese are friendly, helpful, kind etc. In business Taiwanese have proven themselves to be hard-working, adaptive and entrepreneurial. So why then do these same congenial people have trouble working together for one nation in politics? Why can't they develop, expand and solidify the freedom and democracy that they and their ancestors took so long to win and sacrificed so much to achieve? Why do Taiwanese, particularly in their nation's identity and sovereignty become their own worst enemy?

Restricting freedom of expression in Taiwan

The Alliance for Democracy and Human Rights

The Chinese government arrested one of the originators of Charter 08, dissident and Tiananmen pro-democracy movement veteran Liu Xiaobo, on the grounds that he was instigating the overthrow of the government. We find it very upsetting that China, which keeps talking about its “peaceful rise,” would employ such measures to deal with an unarmed academic.

There's still no transparency

Taipei Times

Since the first round of cross-strait talks under the Ma Ying-jeou presidency last year, the pace of developments in the Taiwan Strait has some unnerved, and others — mostly those eyeing investment opportunities — delighted.

Were the government’s high-speed pursuit of economic opportunity rooted in democratic processes, there would be less room for criticism. But cross-strait reforms — regardless of their potential effect on Taiwan’s independence and the livelihoods of Taiwanese — are being decided behind closed doors, and with no public or legislative oversight.

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