Taiwan News once again takes heads with a great editorial that says it ever so much better than I could. Among the highlights…
The accidental sinking of the allegedly fishing boat “Lienho” after a collusion with a Japanese Coast Guard patrol near the contested Tiaoyutai or Senkaku islets June 11 sparked a revealing test of the [...]
Xuenfang Battery in Tainan, on Guanghua Street, now enclosed in the grounds of a Buddhist nunnery.
The DPP came out with a statement on Saturday morning saying that the Wu-Hu talks had inflicted “five major wounds” on Taiwan:
Harming Taiwan’s democracy by regressing the pattern of cross-strait negotiations back before even the October 1992 semi-public SEF-ARATS talks [...]
It’s a good thing that checkbook diplomacy is going to be shut down, because it seems to be reaching absurd proportions as Paraguay claims Taiwan has pledged $71 million in aid.
Taiwan denied promising Paraguay’s incoming government that it would donate 71 million dollars to the South American nation, a newspaper said Sunday. “We are unaware [...]
Bruce Jacobs had a nice commentary in the Taipei Times today arguing that Taipei really ought to pursue some kind of “dual recognition” format:
Second, Taiwan needs to broadcast much more clearly that it is willing to have joint recognition with China. At least from the outside, it appears that Taiwan still breaks relations with countries [...]
Taiwan’s checkbook diplomacy was spotlighted this week with the revelation that the Taiwan government was giving out money in little brown bags from the back door to anyone who said they could buy a government…..
“I don’t know if the money went to Papua New Guinea,” Huang added.
Chiou said the affair began when an unidentified friend [...]
There’s a new democratic wind blowing in Paraguay, and according to a report in the Paraguayan paper La Nacion and a recent Taiwan News editorial, things in Paraguay are looking grim for Taiwan (Espanol to Ingles translation by Google):
Taiwan announced today that it will strengthen its communications with the Paraguayan president-elect, former Catholic Bishop Fernando [...]
The Pacific islands’ relationship with Taiwan is back in the news. Last January I discussed several articles on Taiwan’s diplomatic initiatives in the South Seas. I cited one piece which said:
Following destructive riots in the Solomons capital Honiara in April, the Australian and New Zealand governments criticised the Taiwanese government for engaging in chequebook diplomacy [...]
Some interesting stuff going on out there today. Wapo has a long article on the decline of Japan, one of several that have appeared recently. There is also a piece in Wapo by Jane Rickards of AmCham here on President Chen’s trip to the Spratlys:
Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian inaugurated a runway on one of the [...]
A reader sent me this article from the Taipei Times with the delightful tale of a Malawian government official who allegedly pocketed the cash from China:
A Malawian official who played a key role in the government’s decision to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China has fled the country after pocketing the million-dollar “sweetener” Beijing [...]
As I wandered around RT Mart yesterday observing the vast quantities of chocolate now available even in totally localized grocery chains, I realized that the American pachydermal physique may well be The Shape of Things to Come. It will be good not to be alone… speaking of expansion (and aloneness), the defection of the speaker [...]
International news was made again as Costa Rica switched recognition from Taiwan to China. Reports filled the world media:
Taiwans News.Net
A joint communique, signed on June 1 by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and his Costa Rican counterpart Bruno Stagno Ugarte, says the two governments, ‘in accordance with the interests and aspirations of the peoples of [...]
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