A few days ago, former Judicial Yuan president Shih Chi-yang (
In the face of the pan-blue camp's attempts to deprive the people of their right to vote in the country's first ever referendum, the pan-green camp has also brought together more than 800 legal experts to refute Shih's argument. This group believes the pan-blue camp's claims distort the current situation and ignore the threats posed by China's 500 or so missiles aimed at this country. Taiwan will not have the time to hold a referendum when a life-and-death threat arises. The Referendum Law would be useless at such a point.
The views of the pan-green's experts are valid. After all, the Democratic Progressive Party government has only been in power for less than four years after 40 years of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule. The thorny problems left behind by the old regime, such as its illegally gained assets, the size of the legislature, changing electoral constituencies and the establishment of a double ballot system as well as the creation of a new constitution compatible with the nation's democratic development, all need to be determined via referendums.
Referendums are an expression of the people's power. They also guarantee that this nation's democratic development will be regulated by law. Therefore, the sooner the referendum is held, the earlier the nation's democracy will be deepened.
Taiwan remains under military threat from China. Beijing's missiles are real and so is the threat they pose, as shown by the 1996 missile crisis. At the same time, Taiwan's international space remains limited by China. Fewer than 30 countries recognize Taiwan's sovereign status. Isn't the situation serious enough to merit a referendum?
Taiwan must make its voice heard in the international community and express its people's opposition to China's missile threat and their love for peace. With all the attention focused on the presidential election, it is certainly worthwhile to use this time to make the nation's voice heard in the international community.
The enthusiasm displayed during the hand-in-hand rally on Feb. 28 was proof that public opinion is tilting toward the exercise of referendum rights and saying a loud no to China's military threat. This popular sentiment is a power that any future government must heed. The pan-blue camp should take note of public opinion and try to win the approval of voters by siding with the people of this country and not the leadership in Beijing. They should spend more time explaining China's oppressive acts to the international community instead of blindly echoing Beijing's condemnation of the referendum and trying to disrupt the balloting. The pan-blue camp has just a few days left to try to persuade voters that they have this nation's best interests at heart -- not their own.
Because much of what former US president Donald Trump says is unhinged and histrionic, it is tempting to dismiss all of it as bunk. Yet the potential future president has a populist knack for sounding alarums that resonate with the zeitgeist — for example, with growing anxiety about World War III and nuclear Armageddon. “We’re a failing nation,” Trump ranted during his US presidential debate against US Vice President Kamala Harris in one particularly meandering answer (the one that also recycled urban myths about immigrants eating cats). “And what, what’s going on here, you’re going to end up in World War
Earlier this month in Newsweek, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to retake the territories lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. He stated: “If it is for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t [the PRC] take back the lands occupied by Russia that were signed over in the treaty of Aigun?” This was a brilliant political move to finally state openly what many Chinese in both China and Taiwan have long been thinking about the lost territories in the Russian far east: The Russian far east should be “theirs.” Granted, Lai issued
On Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) met with a delegation from the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University in California, to discuss strengthening US-Taiwan relations and enhancing peace and stability in the region. The delegation was led by James Ellis Jr, co-chair of the institution’s Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region project and former commander of the US Strategic Command. It also included former Australian minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne, influential US academics and other former policymakers. Think tank diplomacy is an important component of Taiwan’s efforts to maintain high-level dialogue with other nations with which it does
On Sept. 2, Elbridge Colby, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development, wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal called “The US and Taiwan Must Change Course” that defends his position that the US and Taiwan are not doing enough to deter the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from taking Taiwan. Colby is correct, of course: the US and Taiwan need to do a lot more or the PRC will invade Taiwan like Russia did against Ukraine. The US and Taiwan have failed to prepare properly to deter war. The blame must fall on politicians and policymakers