Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
First, Lien, without any evidence of voting fraud, denounced the election results and mobilized his supporters to protest in front of the presidential building. He even attempted (albeit unsuccessfully) to obtain permits for a two-month long demonstration in Taipei, a request that was denied by Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Second, Lien has continued to ally himself with the People First Party (PFP), even after the PFP engaged in a host of unashamedly undemocratic and uncivil actions in the wake of the election, ranging from razing police barricades and breaking into the Central Election Commission to -- perhaps most shockingly -- openly calling for violence against the Presidential Office, government offices and banks on its Web site. The Web content was later removed.
Third, Lien has refused to abide by the democratic process and timeframe for a ballot recount, demanding that Chen circumvent the Constitution and declare a national emergency to complete a total recount within 48 hours. When Chen agreed to a recount, Lien then retracted his demand for a complete recount, arguing instead (through his lawyer, on April 2) for a partial recount of only Chen's ballots.
Lien is willing to forsake three decades of democratic progress for the sake of his personal agenda, but the people have spoken otherwise. Even Lien's own party members are beginning to openly disagree with his actions.
I urge Lien to cease his demonstrations, denounce the violence and gracefully accept defeat. It is not only the proper results of the election that lie in the balance, but also the very future and prosperity of democracy in Taiwan.
Jack Chen
United States
The conflict in the Middle East has been disrupting financial markets, raising concerns about rising inflationary pressures and global economic growth. One market that some investors are particularly worried about has not been heavily covered in the news: the private credit market. Even before the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, global capital markets had faced growing structural pressure — the deteriorating funding conditions in the private credit market. The private credit market is where companies borrow funds directly from nonbank financial institutions such as asset management companies, insurance companies and private lending platforms. Its popularity has risen since
The Donald Trump administration’s approach to China broadly, and to cross-Strait relations in particular, remains a conundrum. The 2025 US National Security Strategy prioritized the defense of Taiwan in a way that surprised some observers of the Trump administration: “Deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority.” Two months later, Taiwan went entirely unmentioned in the US National Defense Strategy, as did military overmatch vis-a-vis China, giving renewed cause for concern. How to interpret these varying statements remains an open question. In both documents, the Indo-Pacific is listed as a second priority behind homeland defense and
Every analyst watching Iran’s succession crisis is asking who would replace supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Yet, the real question is whether China has learned enough from the Persian Gulf to survive a war over Taiwan. Beijing purchases roughly 90 percent of Iran’s exported crude — some 1.61 million barrels per day last year — and holds a US$400 billion, 25-year cooperation agreement binding it to Tehran’s stability. However, this is not simply the story of a patron protecting an investment. China has spent years engineering a sanctions-evasion architecture that was never really about Iran — it was about Taiwan. The
In an op-ed published in Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said that Taiwan should not have to choose between aligning with Beijing or Washington, and advocated for cooperation with Beijing under the so-called “1992 consensus” as a form of “strategic ambiguity.” However, Cheng has either misunderstood the geopolitical reality and chosen appeasement, or is trying to fool an international audience with her doublespeak; nonetheless, it risks sending the wrong message to Taiwan’s democratic allies and partners. Cheng stressed that “Taiwan does not have to choose,” as while Beijing and Washington compete, Taiwan is strongest when
RSS