Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Slovenia, Taiwan share similar pasts

Taipei Times Editorial

On Sunday, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa was defeated in the country’s parliamentary election.

Jansa’s loss was largely welcomed by the Western media, which had called him an autocratic populist, and reported on Slovenia’s slide to the right and a sharp decline in democratic standards during his two-year leadership, an assessment backed up by reports from Freedom House and Amnesty International.

Taiwan’s response was always going to be more nuanced. In January, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) had called Jansa “a good friend of Taiwan” for his government’s plan to establish a representative office in Taiwan, and for his remarks that he supported Taiwan’s entry into the WHO and that Taiwanese should have the right to determine their future, without any pressure, military intervention or blackmailing from China.

‘House of Sweden’ in Taipei motion tabled at Riksdag

Taipei Times

Members of a Swedish parliamentary delegation pose for a photograph after arriving at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on April 10.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Swedish lawmakers have proposed a motion to have a building in Taiwan similar to the House of Sweden in Washington, with the motion expected to be debated and voted on soon, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

The idea was first mentioned on April 14 during a five-day visit to Taiwan by a Swedish delegation.

More Ukraine Lessons For China And Taiwan

Richard D. Fisher, Jr.

As Russia’s illegal war to exterminate the nation of Ukraine slogs into its third devastating month, it has yielded many lessons China can apply to its future war against the nation of Taiwan — and that Taiwanese can exploit for their defense and survival.

For China, the most important lesson of Russia’s stark military failures is that like Russia, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) quest for hegemony rests on a brittle and fatal hubris.

Vladimir Putin envisioned his war to conquer Ukraine as a stepping stone to political-military hegemony in at least Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. But several key failures have turned his war into an existential risk to his own regime. These include: underestimating Ukrainian resolve and that of the democracies now assisting Ukraine while imposing political and economic isolation on Russia; and, the expectation of dividing NATO rather than to driving Sweden and Finland to join it.

CCP manipulation of ancient texts

Kung Hsien-tai 孔憲臺

The Central Office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) this month published a document titled: “Suggestions concerning the work of advancing ancient texts for a new era” (關於推進新時代古籍工作的意見) and required that all government departments and local administrations thoroughly implement the “suggestions.”

In addition to requiring that ancient texts be given new impetus through digitization, conservation, dissemination, research, compilation, talent cultivation, legal protection and financial support, most noteworthy was the document’s position that the purpose of elevating China’s ancient texts is to “provide a spiritual force for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese people.”

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