2008 - 2nd Quarter
Book Review by Richard Kagan Ph.D. of "Taiwan, the Search for Identity"
The title of this book, Taiwan: the Search for Identity, shares its name in whole and/or in part with over 220,000 published works in the Google.com list. If one were to just search for the sub-title, there would be another 4,736 identified publications. The topic of Taiwan's identity is one of the compelling issues of our time. I cannot overstate ...
The KMT Revives Memories of its Blacklist
Those who know Taiwan history, know well of the infamous blacklist created by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) during the period of White Terror. This list was used to suppress any form of dissent or challenges to the KMT's monopolistic rule and image. Its main purpose was intimidation and the victims were not only Taiwanese but even foreigners. Anyone who ...
Are Ma and the KMT Betraying Taiwan?
Recently the Pan-blue press has been trying to make a mountain out of a molehill in the Diaoyutai islands. There have been suggestions of war accompanied by jingoistic saber-rattling. In reality what may be involved is that Taiwan's President wants to distract the public from how much he has been kowtowing to China to hopefully gain some tourist dollars. In ...
The Diaoyutais Incident: Ma Ying-jeou Fails the Action Test Once More
The Diaoyutais Islands are just a bunch of rocks and as such they would not be worth fighting over. What makes them valuable of course is the possibility that there may be oil below them; that plus the fact ownership would allow Taiwan, Japan or China (three claimants to the islands) to extend their territorial waters. So the collision on ...
Tiananmen, China, and What They Call Progress
The 19th anniversary of Tiananmen Square has come and gone. Over one hundred of those who led and participated in the demonstrations and were not killed are still prisoners languishing in jail. Wang Dan, an exiled leader clearly advocates that what was sought by the demonstration were greater rights for the people of China. He bemoans the fact that little ...
The KMT's Questionable Sunshine Loyalty: When Will Taiwan Wake Up?
As outsiders and losers, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) came to Taiwan; it was only by force of arms that they took colonial rule over the island. They remained and kept a one-party state resisting attempts to democratize the island for close to a half a century. When they lost in elections, they threatened to take their ball (and the ...
Ma Ying-jeou, the Excuses Keep Coming
There is more to being president than making promises and taking pictures. Does anyone remember Ma Ying-jeou's touted "long stay" in the south; the one where he spent a brief time with the people there to supposedly show his sympathy and understanding? That was the same stay that the infamous "farmer's daughter" incident came up and Ma's spin doctors tried ...
1992--The Consensus That Never Was
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." These words of Paul Joseph Goebbels, the Propaganda Minister for Adolph Hitler come to mind each time someone mentions the 1992 Consensus, the alleged agreement between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This agreement holds that there ...
Ma Ying-jeou Begs China Not to Put Him on the Spot
Ma Ying-jeou has already said he won't honor his 6-3-3 campaign promise, now as KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung is preparing to lead a sixteen member delegation to China, Ma is worried. His request, ask the Chinese not to bring up the sovereignty question. Why? It is not just to keep the talks moving, Ma wants to keep the fudge factor ...
Taiwan Post Election Awards III
Prosecutor Wu Wen-chung qualified for numerous awards recently when he joked with reporters that Chen Shui-bian should be given the death sentence because the KMT accuses him of misues of his "state affairs" fund; this is all before Chen has even been questioned and before it has been decided whether there is enough evidence to warrant a trial. Award givers ...
Taiwan Post Election Awards II
Diane Lee qualifies for the "Not Me" Award. Legislator Diane Lee states that she no longer holds US citizenship, because she became a legislator. However, US Citizenship requires that a person in such a position must write a formal letter for such. Someone needs to tell Diane that simply putting your US Passport in a drawer and using your Taiwan ...
Taiwan Post Election Awards I
The inauguration of Ma Ying-jeou had barely finished when everyone began to show their true colors. A series of awards are thus in order. First of all, Minister of National Defense Chen Chao-min got two awards. The first was the award for claiming expertise in a field totally foreign to one's training. At a briefing of the National Defense Committee ...
Ma Ying-jeou, the Drama of it All
On the eve of his inauguration as President of Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou described his feelings as "treading on thin ice and standing on the edge of an abyss." How true. It is only natural that when you have promised everything to everyone, that sooner or later it sinks in that people will realize you cannot deliver. It is also only ...
Can Ma Ying-jeou Hide the Cracks in the Facade?
Ma Ying-jeou's inauguration is near at hand; the visitors are arriving and the press will have their cameras out. To be sure his speech will be full of promises and more promises and will paint a rosy picture of the future but despite all that the cracks in the fa蓷de are widening. First of course Ma's 6-3-3 pre-election promise (6 ...
Inauguration Games
It appears that Frank Hsieh will not attend Ma Ying-jeou's inauguration; reason given is that Ma has already reneged on his campaign promises even before he has taken office. An extra unofficial reason may be that Hsieh was given the parking place with number 44--not an auspicious number. It makes me wonder who got that parking place in 2004 and ...
China, Tibet, Feng-shui and More?
It may be post hoc reasoning, but with the problems of the Olympic Torch relay, the recent disasters in China, and in particular the earthquake in Sichuan Province, the Feng-shui masters and commentators in Taiwan have been having a field day on the airwaves. The first point taken focused on the bringing of the Olympic Torch to the top of ...
China Says Let Bygones be Bygones, Of Course They Always Do
Am I hearing things or am I am hearing things? Hu Jintao now visiting Japan has told the Japanese that they should not dwell on history. It is important, he went on, to remember history, but people should not hold grudges. Is this the same China that continually tells Japan they must apologize and apologize over and over again for ...
Going to the Olympics? Leave the Kids at Home
The Olympics are just a few months away, and for those planning on going to the Olympics in China this year, a new wrinkle has appeared to threaten those plans. Enterovirus 71 or EV-71 is spreading across the country. Already present in two provinces, this virus is particularly deadly to children and has already claimed 26 fatalities; overall there are ...
A Borrowed Voice, Taiwan Human Rights through International Networks 1960--1980
A new book, "A Borrowed Voice, Taiwan Human Rights through International Networks, 1960--1980" written and edited by Linda Gail Arrigo and Lynn A. Miles, will be coming out shortly. This book covers the tumultuous years of Taiwan's movement toward democracy and the many people that underwent persecution and paid a heavy price for Taiwan's present democracy. The Borrowed Voice is ...
China Welcomes Loser Lien Chan, Their Kind of Man
Lien Chan is in China for his fourth visit and one cannot help but wonder why Hu Jintao delights in discussing cross-strait relations with a known loser in Taiwan. Lien has never really won an important election in Taiwan. Perhaps that is his appeal to someone like Hu, who is naturally not keen on democracy and elections anyway. Other questions ...
Taiwan Vignette III, Vincent Siew and the High Cost of Humiliation
A short while ago, vice-president-elect Vincent Siew of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) returned from the Boao Forum in Hainan. Siew's trip was hailed by Taiwan's Pan-blue press as a breakthrough; the kind of thing we need to stimulate Taiwan's allegedly faltering economy, after all, we only had 5.7 % growth last year. While there at the forum, Siew had ...
Taiwan Vignettes II, the Rising High Cost of Housing in Taipei and Taiwan
Ma Ying-joke is not yet president but people are already starting to see problems behind the fa蓷de of his simplistic cure-all systems and promises. If you remember Ma was the one who was going to open up China for investment as well as invite the Chinese to invest in Taiwan, and everyone would become rich. Well last week our first ...
Taiwan, China, and the Olympics; This Is Not About Politics. Thank God!
The selection of China for the Olympics was not political; it was just done to legitimize the claim that China despite Tiananmen Square and despite its dismal human rights record is on a peaceful rise. After all Tiananmen Square was ages past, and China has changed, so China deserves the Olympics because China has been begging to prove it is ...
Taiwan Vignette I: The High Cost of Pandas for the Alleged Depressed Economy
I have always professed that Ma Ying-jeou was a window dressing mayor and politician and that he promises more of the same as president. But now it seems that Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin is also trying to get in on the act with the panda connection. All this flies in the face of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential campaign ...
Taiwan Gets Support from Down Under
On Saturday April 12, two Australians addressed the Taipei Breakfast Club on salient Taiwan issues. First was 26 year old, Dr. Lily Wang, CEO of the Australian Taiwanese WHO for Taiwan Action Association. Lily, who had returned to Taiwan from Australia to vote in the presidential elections spoke of the problems that the 23 million people in democratic Taiwan and ...
Troubles in Tibet? It's All the Dalai Lama's Fault, Just Read the "China Daily"
Have you been seeing the fictitious problems of the symbolic Olympic torch that supposedly needs a huge protective guard as it starts its journey around the world? Have you been reading about the riots and suffering in Tibet? Pure fabrication says the "China Daily." The world is much too sympathetic to the incorrectly reported plight of Tibetans. Such were the ...
Bolton Nailed It; Taiwan Needs to be Independent
Taiwan deserves full diplomatic recognition by the USA and other nations. These nations should recognize the state that has existed for some time in Taiwan, and the state that the Taiwanese wish to preserve. That was the gist of John R. Bolton's piece in the March 29 edition of the "Los Angeles Times" which highlighted the refreshing approach that Taiwan ...