Because of the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) failure to win a legislative majority, President Chen Shui-bian (
The honeymoon for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and party Chairman Lien Chan (
Soong returned to Taiwan from the US on Monday to attend the funeral of former first lady Faina Chiang Fang-liang (
The public recently voted in support of the current state of affairs -- steady growth. All parties must listen to this judgment in a humble manner, end the power struggles and try to understand that the national interest lies in cooperation. When Chen resigned as party chairman, he moved toward the political high ground of a "president for all." He should now take the initiative and invite party leaders to offer input on major policies and seek as much cooperation from them as possible under the circumstances.
In the 20 days remaining in this legislative session, a number of important issues remain unresolved, including the confirmation of Control Yuan appointments, the arms procurement bill, the Organic Law of the Executive Yuan (
All parties must make the national interest their top priority and seek a practical solution to defense needs and the cost of necessary arms, rather than using the issue as a tool for political struggle.
The political establishment now faces a comprehensive reshuffle. The stances of the pan-blue and pan-green camps are consequently adjusting to the new situation, and this may reduce the level of political extremism on show. It should now become possible for various problems to be dealt with through clearer channels of communication. With this, Taiwan can only begin moving forward again.
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