Olympic games for the hollow men As it prepares for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, the Chinese government has launched an unprecedented inte...

Fixed in time Whether history is taught well or not, its use never fails to determine the kind of world we live in. In places like Serbia, t...

A dirge for our time Not since my review of David Kaplan's excellent Fires of the Dragon more than a year ago have I chosen to write ab...

The shame of democracies (Readers should note that a slightly different version of this posting appeared in the July 11, 2007, editition of ...

Taiwan and the art of the irrational Proponents of Taiwanese sovereignty have placed such high hopes on the law that they have begun to soun...

The spymaster in boots Four years ago, give or take a week or two, I, along with another 19 individuals, was on the brink of “graduating” fr...

Of surrender, identity and one big happy family As is always the case, it is only when one sits down and listens to people's testimonies...

Stuck in a moment While attending the G8 summit in Germany last week, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper may finally have revealed just ...

A corrective of sorts For all its support for liberty and democracy, the Taipei Times has, over the years, run a great number of op-eds wri...

The man in the hall In many ways, history is like a chemical experiment — chemicals are mixed in and the reactions are influenced by variabl...

It’s time for asymmetric warfare In an article appearing in the May 21, 2007, issue of the Taipei Times , I take the discussion on Taiwan’s ...

Behind the red veil in Beijing As many readers will probably know by now, Taiwan’s application for membership at the World Health Organizati...

Thinking for an old world In its rejection e-mail, a certain Canadian newspaper (hint: it is a pro-business, right-of-center publication) to...

A need to prioritize Facing relentless pressure from Beijing, many Taiwanese pundits have made the claim that Taiwan is making a mistake by ...

How the US is sparking an arms race in North East Asia In a time when countries all over the globe feel the need to genuflect at the Washing...

Update A week has now passed since my article “Why Celil doesn’t stand a chance” was published in the Taipei Times (see “The forgotten Cana...

The forgotten Canadian I would never have thought that writing an op-ed in the Taipei Times would result in my being interviewed, 12 hours ...

Asking the wrong question The Canadian Parliament yesterday turned down a motion, by 150 votes to 134, by the Liberal opposition requesting ...

As expected The history of public intellectuals facing personal attacks, and sometimes threats to their safety, is, sadly, a long one. Indiv...

Manicheans in Ottawa Parallel to the ongoing debate in the US over troop withdrawal from Iraq, Ottawa has been going through a similar proce...