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A voice from Taiwan

“We no longer have a democracy worth defending”

Johanna Lei takes a hard line with her country. The confrontational course with the People’s Republic of China is dangerous. The USA is adding fuel to the fire.

Interview by Joanna Lei* conducted by Pierre Heumann

(21 March 2023) Taiwanese opposition politician Joanna Lei accuses the government in Taipei of dismantling democracy and trying to distance itself more from the People’s Republic. Instead, Lei favours peaceful coexistence with mainland China, for example by founding a “commonwealth”. This is causing displeasure in Washington. According to Lei, the USA wants to assert its own interests at Taiwan’s expense. She fears that America could use the small Republic of China, i.e. Taiwan, for a proxy war against the People’s Republic.
On Swiss Neutrality

A plea for a neutrality of the prudent

by Verena Tobler-Linder,* Switzerland

(14 March 2023) (Editor.) In connection with the war in Ukraine, Swiss neutrality has come under serious pressure: should we or should we not support unilateral coercive measures by the EU and the USA, should we or should we not be allowed to deliver ammunition and weapons to a war zone, are unilateral statements by individual members of the Federal Council already a breach of neutrality or not? These and other questions are currently the subject of controversial debate in our country.

Beijing takes the initiative in the Ukraine conflict

by Ralph Bosshard,* Switzerland

(14 March 2023) Just in time for the anniversary of the Russian attack on Ukraine, the Chinese Foreign Ministry launched its initiative for a political solution to the conflict.1 [See the 12 points in the appendix, ed.]

With its cleverly formulated and launched peace proposal, Beijing has staked its claim to a say in important issues of world politics and continues to promote its vision of a multipolar world in which Russia, too, would have to find its own place. Far from letting its Russian partner drag it into a conflict at an inopportune moment, however, China is not prepared to drop it either.
France

Let’s help each other to live, not to die

(14 March 2023) (sv) The French association "Alleviate but don't kill" makes an appeal to the whole of society in view of the Civic Convention that has been meeting in France since 9 December 2022 on end-of-life issues (see box).
France

Euthanasia and assisted suicide must not be considered as care

(14 March 2023) (sv) Representatives of 13 professional nursing associations in France have taken it upon themselves, with a view to possible changes in the law, to reflect on the consequences of legalising assisted suicide and euthanasia (see Box 1) on daily nursing practice and to inform legislators and the population about the results. – We print here the abridged version of their statement, which received wide attention in France. It deserved this attention in many Western countries where the ban on killing has already been challenged or abolished.

The ninth anniversary of the Ukraine war

by Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs,* USA

(7 March 2023) We are not at the 1-year anniversary of the war, as the Western governments and media claim. This is the 9-year anniversary of the war. And that makes a big difference.