Invictus’ Taiwanese Political Blog

President Chen's itinerary is finalized at last.  He is schedule to depart today (May 3rd) and begin his 8-day visit to Paraguay and Costa Rica.  The most disappointing aspect of the visit, or what is seen as the "biggest setback between Taiwan-U.S. relations", is the stop over in Alaska.  Chen is only allowed to "land and refuel" and nothing else.

Taiwan should overlook this setback and focus on strengthening our relationship with Paraguay and Costa Rica – two of our most important allies in Latin America.

Below is the report:

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was scheduled to depart on an eight-day trip to Latin America this morning and to make stopovers in Alaska on his way to and from the allied countries, Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳) said yesterday.

The trip was originally scheduled to begin yesterday evening but Chen was forced to delay his departure due to a last-minute disagreement with the United States over his transit stops...[continue]

Today we shall deviate from Taiwan's deplomatic woes and examine domestic political feud.

According to Maurice Chen, a cabinet official within the Ministry of Interior, claims that the Premier has decided to replace him in order to "consolidate his power".  In my opinion, civil servants (such as Chen himself) should not be replaced just because a new Premier has acquired the position. (Background, Su became Premier in February)

Replacing civil servants without proper justification has many negative implications.  Not only does the leak (of the news) damages the image of the Premier and his aids, replacing them could create a discontinuity in policy implementation.  Furthermore, assuming that Chen's claim is true, then it is irresponsible of Su to pursue such actions.  Political feud and the struggle for power should not happen – and even if it is inevitable, it should be done discreetly.  Reading it off the front page of major newspapers is embarrassing – and also a sign of Su's team's incompetence.

That's my two cents…Below is the excerpt

A Cabinet official in charge of urban planning yesterday accused Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) of sacking him in order to consolidate Su's power in government because he was considered a member of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) clique.

But Cabinet spokesman Cheng Wen-tsan said Maurice Chen, director of the Construction and Planning Agency under the Ministry of Interior, volunteered to retire and he appeared wanting in … [to continue reading]

According to our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we must be "on guard" against China's repeated and relentless efforts aimed at "isolating" Taiwan in the international community.  It is not news that China has tried to form intimate relations with the countries with whom we have formal diplomatic relations.  Unfortunately, these countries only form ties with us out of extortion.  Many of these countries have repeated threaten to sever ties with us and form formal diplomatic relations with China if we do not aid them financially. 

Though we should protest and condemn China's strategy, we must look inward as well – what is fundamentally wrong with our foreign affairs strategies?  We can not continue to "lure" other countries to form ties with us by offering them financial aid.  The government must come up with a more viable solution.  It will be increasingly difficult for us to be active internationally – mostly because the international community only recognizes the "One China Policy".  Our politicians must be innovative and visionary in coming up with a strategy.

Below is the article:

"Hu's actions not as good as words"

Originally uploaded by seamaster2116.

This incident once again proves how difficult it is for us to have diplomatic ties with other countries.  It is clear that protesting against the Chinese wont work…Our government officials and diplomats need to figure out other ways for R.O.C. to appear on the international radar.