The pro-democracy camp in Hong Kong received more than half of the votes in the weekend's legislative council election, but it failed to win a majority. Despite this, voter turnout increased, and all parties advocated the direct election of the Special Administrative Region's (SAR) chief executive, showing that people's desire for democracy cannot be stopped.
Yet democracy cannot happen overnight. People of Hong Kong need to demonstrate more determination in order to challenge Beijing. The election revealed that Hong Kong's people increasingly seek democratic reforms, as seen in the turnout rate, intensified campaigns and the nominees' diverse backgrounds.
Though the pro-democracy opposition only won three more seats than before, this time people like ``Longhair'' Leung Kwok-hung (
Whether China's "one country, two systems" policy can succeed in Hong Kong will influence its policy toward Taiwan as well as the power struggle among Beijing's leadership. This increases the international community's interest in the election.
Hong Kong voters expressed their desire for democracy; even the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong has campaigned for a direct election for the SAR chief executive. Future political reform will focus on this issue and direct elections for the legislative council in 2012.
Chief executive Tung Chee-hwa's (
It is worth noting that Beijing has learned much about elections from Taiwan and is playing a dual strategy.
On one hand, it is offering economic and infrastructure benefits, and is using its medal-winning Olympic athletes as nationalist icons. At the same time it is repressing opposition and using smear campaigns against its opponents. It has paid a price but still won the elections, and this is likely to give Beijing greater confidence in such situations.
The legislative elections were exciting, but as the council is unrelated to the territory's executive power, the result is not particularly relevant to Taiwan. But the DPP, in speaking to the international community, has repeatedly used the regression in Hong Kong's rule of law, democracy, human rights and media freedom as a reason why Taiwan cannot accept China's "one country, two systems" policy.
The nation should clarify its message, on the one hand encouraging Hong Kong's democratic aspirations and providing its residents with the benefit of our experience, while at the same time criticizing Beijing's strategies.
Reformists fought for 50 years against the authoritarian government of the Chinese Nationalist Party to achieve the democracy Taiwan has today. Many members of the international community also provided resources and support.
Hong Kongers face an even more powerful authoritarian government, and their aspiration to create democracy under the "one country, two systems" structure is wishful thinking. What Hong Kongers can achieve is to delay Chinese repression and win a little breathing space.
Chinese agents often target Taiwanese officials who are motivated by financial gain rather than ideology, while people who are found guilty of spying face lenient punishments in Taiwan, a researcher said on Tuesday. While the law says that foreign agents can be sentenced to death, people who are convicted of spying for Beijing often serve less than nine months in prison because Taiwan does not formally recognize China as a foreign nation, Institute for National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said. Many officials and military personnel sell information to China believing it to be of little value, unaware that
Before 1945, the most widely spoken language in Taiwan was Tai-gi (also known as Taiwanese, Taiwanese Hokkien or Hoklo). However, due to almost a century of language repression policies, many Taiwanese believe that Tai-gi is at risk of disappearing. To understand this crisis, I interviewed academics and activists about Taiwan’s history of language repression, the major challenges of revitalizing Tai-gi and their policy recommendations. Although Taiwanese were pressured to speak Japanese when Taiwan became a Japanese colony in 1895, most managed to keep their heritage languages alive in their homes. However, starting in 1949, when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) enacted martial law
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