The agreement to cooperate between KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
For those of us less enamored with the blue camp and with a perhaps more realistic view of Taiwan's political dystopia, the immediate reaction was, in the worlds of baseball great Yogi Berra, "deja vu all over again." Yes, folks we have been here before -- at least twice.
For example, the two parties were supposed to cooperate in the races for county commissioners for the election in December last year as well as hammer out some kind of vote-equalization strategies for the legislative candidates. Such attempts at cooperation were laughable and "pan-blue unity" for all the sweet talk, became an oxymoron as inter-party relations became as edifying as two dogs fighting under a rug.
Then we saw the pathetic attempt to cooperate over the recent Kaohsiung mayoral election. True, cooperation of a sort was finally achieved, but only because Soong couldn't find his own candidate -- even his own vice chairman dropped out of the race.
Not the most impressive of track records.
Of course there are many who will say that the blue camp has learned its lesson, that united it wins office and divided it gets pasted by the DPP -- something that has been apparent ever since the Taipei mayoral election of 1994. But whether this is enough to rein in the giant egos remains to be seen. True connoisseurs of Taiwan's political freak show will now look forward to the clowns beating each other about the heads with inflated opinion polls before slipping on the banana skins of their own shady pasts and dubious relationships.
As usual it is what is deemed "not necessary to deal with right at this moment" that is the essence of the problems surrounding pan-blue cooperation, namely, as Abbott and Costello would put it, who's on first. Is it going to be Lien-Soong or Soong-Lien? We have almost a year of watching these two arm-wrestle over this question. But the result is hardly a cliff-hanger. Soong-Lien is simply never going to happen. Lien has no intention of playing second fiddle again after four -- very undistinguished -- years of it before. Is Soong willing to do so, or is he going to wreck the blue camp's chances a second time? Note the interesting use to which Ma Ying-jeou's (
Already we are seeing polls that suggest a Lien-Ma pairing is a winner. Now polls in Taiwan are almost invariably corrupt, being often the tools of political factions trying to show support for their questionable agendas. So polls showing support for a Lien-Ma pairing are best seen, not as a reflection of what the public really wants but as a message to James Soong that the KMT is quite prepared if need be to go it alone. In which case Soong would have to as well. The implication is that, though this might deny the top job to the KMT, a Lien-Ma pairing would probably take enough votes off Soong to keep him out of office as well. And Soong is of an age where he can't afford another four years in the wilderness. So forget what the polls claim to show, instead see them for what they are -- the KMT's ultimatum Soong can't refuse.
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
RSS