2021 - 3rd Quarter
Reviving Taiwan’s National Democracy Hall
Taiwan will always face new challenges within and without as its democracy develops. Yet while new issues appear and must be resolved, one of the most pressing problems from its past remains, namely: What to do with the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, or as it is sarcastically called, “The Tomb of the Dead Dictator?” ...
Why is the CCP so obsessed with Control?
For China observers, especially those in Taiwan, the past decade has brought awareness of an increasing obsession by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with control. It seeks to control not simply national policy but all aspects of its citizens’s lives. ...
Taiwan’s Many Shades of Independence
Taiwan is a de facto independent nation, one that perfectly fits the four chief criteria of statehood required by the Montevideo Convention. Namely, it has a permanent population, a defined territory, a functioning government and the capacity to enter relations with other states. ...
The KMT is destined to face history
In retrospect, the year 1979 proved to be the tipping point for the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) one-party state and its dreams for the Republic of China (ROC). Most KMT did not see it then and some still do not yet the KMT must face especially it as it prepares to choose its next chairperson. ...
The US Needs a “One Taiwan” Policy
In this complicated and often confusing post-Cold War era, the US and other nations need to up their international game and establish a “one Taiwan” policy. This is long overdue. ...
Lithuania Helps Taiwan in Defying China
The small Baltic nation of Lithuania recently announced that it would accept a Taiwanese representative office in its capital, Vilnius, and that it would establish its own trade office in Taiwan by the end of the year. ...
Taiwan Is Its Own Motherland
A key dividing line between Taiwanese and the more archaic members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is found in how they answer two basic questions: “What do you consider to be your motherland? and “Would you die to defend it?” ...
China Has Made the CCP its Religion
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) last week celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding. As expected, little was said about the millions upon millions of Chinese that died, either directly when the CCP seized power indirectly on as collateral damage of its many failed policies. Also flossed over was the way the CCP has foundered from a fractured Marxist/Leninist idea into being a capitalistic totalitarian one-party state “with Chinese characteristics” of course. ...