Taiwan Church News
3420 Edition
September 11 – 17, 2017
Church Ministry Make Taiwan No More Be Conquered Reported by Lin Yi-yin How to efficiently showcase Taiwan’s soft powers to strengthen her military defenseand national security? This is a hot issue discussed in an academic seminar, entitledas “Make Taiwan no more be conquered: A demonstration of her soft powers” andjointly organized by PCT, Taiwan International Studies Association(TISA) and TaiwanNational Defense Policy and Strategic Studies Association, inviting campaigners ofcivilian defense and scholars of strategics studies to share their thoughts in differentfields of soft power for Taiwan’s security at East Gate Presbyterian Church in Taipei onAugust 26. Rev Lyim Hong-tiong – PCT General Secretary, Prof Albert Lin, strategics scholar Dr Chen Hsaio-hsien, and Rev Chen Kuo-chung were invited to share and exchangetheir thoughts on diverse soft powers actually practiced in social actions inTaiwan, for example, Open Space Technology(OST), Third Party Neutral(TPN),Urban-Rural Movement (URM) and Civilian-Based Defense(CBD). Giving the audience a sketch of what these soft powers were, Prof Albert Lin explained the major purpose and function of each soft powermentioned above: URM aims to train people with the capabilities to defendthemselves in non-violence action; TPN is a set of methods for resolving the conflict;OST wishes to promote organizational reform and search common ground for society;CBD intends to implement in civilian society a systematic actions of non-violenceagainst any invasion from outside or coup d’état from within. As these non-violence actions are absolutely harmless and beneficial for people tounite together with consensus and deliver practical and efficient civilian-defense, over 70 participants ofthis seminar on soft power, mostly leaders at citizen movements or scholars in strategic studies and military defense, urged Taiwan society to implementand learn these techniques of social actions as early as possible to build up a Taiwan no morebe conquered! Translated by Peter Wolfe |