The National Assembly elections will take place in less than a month. Campaigning, however, is nonexistent. A recent opinion poll suggest that most voters don't know the election date -- May 14 -- and that half don't know what the elections are for, or what impact they will have. This is largely due to the media's obsession with the China trips by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
There have been some who have been trying to cool Lien and Soong's China fever. Former president Lee Teng-hui (
Opposition between localization and pro-China forces is building up again. Both sides are eloquent. The general public is unable to decide who is right and who is wrong, and neither side is capable of persuading the other. Perhaps the National Assembly elections could be seen as a vote of confidence, with the public deciding if Taiwan should continue to engage with, or distance itself from, China.
The assembly is being elected to vote on constitutional amendments to halve the number of legislative seats, adopting a single-member district, two-vote system for the legislative elections and abolishing the institution of the National Assembly.
Although President Chen Shui-bian (
If the political parties wish to increase the political significance of the assembly elections by turning them into a vote of confidence, the TSU and the PFP should begin by ending their technical obstruction and speed up the passage of the law governing the National Assembly's exercise of power (
Lien and Soong's trips to China are certain to be seen by Beijing as a great opportunity to promote its unification agenda and blur national consciousness in Taiwan. This is an important political issue for this country, not a judicial issue. Courts will not be able to determine if Lien and Soong's visits are the right thing to do. Only by bringing their ideas and actions to the public and letting the Taiwanese people as a whole decide if their political judgment and opinions go against the public's wishes will we get a clear answer to that question.
If the parties want to increase the significance of these neglected assembly elections as well as their own political responsibilities, they could do so by intensifying their campaigning. This would be a great opportunity to educate the public in civic politics, and the best way to resolve the conflict over constitutional amendments and China policies.
In the event of a war with China, Taiwan has some surprisingly tough defenses that could make it as difficult to tackle as a porcupine: A shoreline dotted with swamps, rocks and concrete barriers; conscription for all adult men; highways and airports that are built to double as hardened combat facilities. This porcupine has a soft underbelly, though, and the war in Iran is exposing it: energy. About 39,000 ships dock at Taiwan’s ports each year, more than the 30,000 that transit the Strait of Hormuz. About one-fifth of their inbound tonnage is coal, oil, refined fuels and liquefied natural gas (LNG),
To counter the CCP’s escalating threats, Taiwan must build a national consensus and demonstrate the capability and the will to fight. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) often leans on a seductive mantra to soften its threats, such as “Chinese do not kill Chinese.” The slogan is designed to frame territorial conquest (annexation) as a domestic family matter. A look at the historical ledger reveals a different truth. For the CCP, being labeled “family” has never been a guarantee of safety; it has been the primary prerequisite for state-sanctioned slaughter. From the forced starvation of 150,000 civilians at the Siege of Changchun
The two major opposition parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), jointly announced on Tuesday last week that former TPP lawmaker Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) would be their joint candidate for Chiayi mayor, following polling conducted earlier this month. It is the first case of blue-white (KMT-TPP) cooperation in selecting a joint candidate under an agreement signed by their chairpersons last month. KMT and TPP supporters have blamed their 2024 presidential election loss on failing to decide on a joint candidate, which ended in a dramatic breakdown with participants pointing fingers, calling polls unfair, sobbing and walking
In the opening remarks of her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) framed her visit as a historic occasion. In his own remarks, Xi had also emphasized the history of the relationship between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Where they differed was that Cheng’s account, while flawed by its omissions, at least partially corresponded to reality. The meeting was certainly historic, albeit not in the way that Cheng and Xi were signaling, and not from the perspective
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