Taipei, June 24 (CNA) A founder of the Taiwan Civil Government which claims Taiwan is legally under U.S. administration following Japan's surrender in World War II was sentenced to 19 years in prison and fined NT$2 million Friday for defrauding around 300 individuals out of NT$100 million (US$3.36 million).
How important are names? Well, that depends.
The old question of Taiwan’s name resurfaced again when Chen Zhen (陳蓁), a Chinese adjunct (part time) professor at the Polytechnic University of Milan, recently bullied a Taiwanese student into changing the name of his country of origin on his thesis.
Chen pressured him to change it from “Taipei, Taiwan,” to “Taipei, China.”
So, how important are names, especially the accuracy of one’s country of origin on an academic thesis?
Anyone who has visited a baseball game has probably heard vendors advertise their products: “You cannot tell the players without a scorecard.”
In baseball games,
The Kinmen and Matsu challenge
By Jerome Keating
Chiseled into rock in Kinmen County’s Jinhu Township (金湖) are the Chinese characters for one of Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) favorite memes. Translated they read: “Remember our days at Ju” (毋忘在莒), referencing the Warring States period when the armies of the state of Qi were forced to retreat to the city of Ju. Once there, they regrouped and returned to regain their lost territory.
That meme serves as an important yet also an ironic reference in understanding the “limbo state” of Taiwan and why it needs to break its nebulous past with Kinmen and Matsu.
US, PRC, ROC: a new Great Game?
By Jerome
Keating
There are games and then there are games; some games are serious while others are just for fun. However, the real ones can be deadly, especially if they involve nations.
One such example served as the backdrop for English author Rudyard Kipling’s novel
Kim; there he used “the Great Game” to describe the struggle between Great Britain and Russia over influence in central Asia. As this game played out, central Asia became a graveyard for many.
Today, another such game is developing, but this game is in East Asia and it could be called the Taiwan Game, or perhaps Great Game II. Its origin is questionable, especially as the players have changed, but its implications remain vast. How and when did this geopolitical game start?