KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
The KMT thinks there is no better time than now to confirm a Lien-Soong ticket. After all, the party's victory in the Taipei mayoral election has boosted internal morale to levels not seen in years, while Soong's "kneeling act" during the campaign was widely criticized. The PFP's image has also been tarnished by some of its members' alleged involvement in the Kaohsiung City Council vote-buying scandal.
As part of this push to promote Lien as presidential material and force Soong to settle for second billing, the KMT has launched a campaign to resurrect the legacy of the late president Chiang Ching-kuo (
Lien has said he is optimistic about reaching an agreement over a joint ticket with Soong. To demonstrate his sincerity, he has ruled out the possibility running on a ticket with Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
But surely all of Lien's optimism and magnanimity must strike the PFP as completely phony. After all, in the last presidential election, not only did Lien lead a party that had dominated the country for more than 50 years straight into opposition, he trailed far behind Soong both in actual votes and in popular support.
Some recent opinion polls have indicated that either a Lien-Soong ticket or a Lien-Ma ticket would draw more support than Chen's re-election campaign. But the key word there is either Soong or Ma, not Lien. So the best path for the PFP is to postpone locking in the ticket until the last possible moment.
In addition, the PFP cannot help but feel nervous about the long-standing desire within the KMT to see the two parties merged. It has already rejected one merger offer made by Lien. After all, the KMT may talk about cooperation and mergers, but its party charter contains a clause designed to keep Soong from ever becoming a member again. Sincerity is not something that either party knows much about.
Then there is the niggling little detail that a joint ticket has not been approved by a democratic mechanism of either party. Neither the officials nor the members of either party have been given the chance to debate the idea. Closed-door discussions between the parties' top leaders have little to do with democratic politics. Soong may claim that KMT-PFP cooperation would not mean a return to the old days of autocratic rule. But given the blatant disregard both he and Lien apparently have for the popular will, their teaming up may herald such a comeback.
Political cooperation must be based on common values and ideals and a shared vision for the future, something a KMT-PFP link-up clearly lacks. Such a marriage of convenience is unlikely to last and should not be encouraged.
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