Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Want to save the world? Recognize Taiwan

Ian Easton

Taiwan’s future is likely to have an outsized impact on not only the United States and People’s Republic of China, but the entire global order. There is no country on Earth today whose future is so uncertain, so contested, and so consequential. Why does Taiwan matter? Because not all foreign policy puzzles are created equal. A power law applies.

When it comes to matters of power, radically unequal distribution is the law of the universe. In Peter Thiel’s book, Zero to One, he describes how the power law works and why it matters to everyone. Thiel uses examples from the venture capital world, pointing out that just a few companies radically outperform all others.

UK motion seeks to bolster Taiwan ties

Taipei Times

A Union flag flutters near the British Houses of Parliament in London on March 13, 2017.
Photo: AFP

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked British lawmakers for passing a motion to enhance security cooperation with Taiwan and support its bid for international recognition.

Members of the British House of Commons on Thursday unanimously voted for the motion following discussions over UK-Taiwan friendship and cooperation presided over by MPs Alicia Kearns and Bob Steward — who are cochairs of the China Research Group and British-Taiwanese All-Party Parliamentary Group respectively.

Separating food safety from ideology

Taipei Times Editorial

The government on Tuesday announced the lifting of a ban on most food imports from Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture and surrounding areas, initially implemented over concerns of contamination following the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster.

The announcement had been expected since a failed referendum on the reinstatement of an import ban on pork containing traces of ractopamine in December last year.

The government has since then been expected to focus on negotiating international trade agreements, especially joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which the ban on Japanese food imports might have jeopardized.

Stop covering for Yen Ching-piao

Chin Heng-wei 金恒煒

A re-election is reportedly to be held for the board of Dajia Jenn Lann Temple (大甲鎮瀾宮) in Taichung’s Dajia District (大甲), although few details are available. That a board re-election for a legal entity such as a temple is shrouded in mystery, with the secrecy even extending to something as fundamental as the temple’s charter, is deeply suspicious, leaving some people to presume that there is something dishonest going on.

Former Non-Partisan Solidarity Union legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標), who allegedly has links to the criminal underworld, has been the temple’s chairman for more than two decades. Whether he would continue in the job, and how he would indefinitely cling to such a lucrative position, would largely depend on the “perpetual board members” he holds sway over.

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