Letter to the editor, Time Magazine

Re: "Ma Ying-jeou : Taiwan's rising star hopes to resolve one of Asia's most dangerous flash point" Time by Michael Shuman

Dear Editor,

You may make an unintentional mistake by putting this article beside the sidebar Growing Influence: Thirteen people from "China" have made the Time 100 with the five star People's Republic of China flag.

I have read this article by Michael Schuman carefully enough to know that Taiwan and China are two distinct nations with different ideologies as Mr Schuman correctly noted. However, the PRC does not exercise sovereignty over Taiwan as your unfortunate sidebar suggest. In fact, on 6 December 2007, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Thomas Christensen publicly reaffirmed US policy (The Taiwan Relations Act) by noting that the US does not recognize PRC sovereignty claims over Taiwan. The people in Taiwan believe that the future status of Taiwan should be determined solely by Taiwanese people themselves according to the principle of self-determination as articulated in the UN charter.

It is my sincere hope that you make a correction to this mistake in a future issue of Time Magazine.

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely yours,

Harry Chen, Ph.D.

President,

Formosan Association for Public Affairs, Canada

Reference: http://www.state.gov/p/eap/rls/rm/2007/96691.htm