Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) must be auditioning for a new career as a comedian. How else to explain his assertion in Beijing that recent "reforms" in China have closed the political gap between China and Taiwan? He must have had the audience rolling in the aisles.
Sadly, there's nothing funny about Lien's misguided attempt to submerge ongoing democratic efforts here in Taiwan. His visit to Beijing is an embarrassment to anyone who believes in democracy.
It's also an embarrassment -- or should be -- to the KMT and its supporters. This visit signals the KMT's unwillingness to accept its role as the current "other" party in Taiwanese politics. It also signals a serious misunderstanding of the workings of the democratic process.
When a party loses an election, it bides its time until the next cycle of elections comes around. In the meantime, it shores up its weaknesses and sorts out its message for the next election. It solidifies its base and recruits new members. With luck and hard work, it comes out on top and gets its people in office. That's what it should take to get what you want in a democracy.
But what Lien is doing is thumbing his nose at the process. The KMT's actions in this instance have done nothing more than signal to China that if it comes here on the military march, there are leaders ready to bend over and take whatever China offers by way of policy for its newest "province."
Lien's visit to Beijing has an uglier, potentially more dangerous message than that one, however. By visiting China, he has also implied to KMT supporters here in Taiwan that it is acceptable for them to turn their backs on democracy if it doesn't give them what they want, when they want it. His visit tells his party's supporters that when they lose elections, they need not worry. There's no political problem here that a few pucker-up-and-kiss missions to Beijing won't solve.
Looking for irony in Lien's visit is an easy task. He offered up yet another knee-slapper to an audience at Peking University when he said, "We can't stay in the past forever." How did they contain their laughter?
By resorting to dirty, backdoor politics, it's Lien who is resorting to old methods. Admittedly, Taiwan's democracy is young and still forming, but President Chen Shui-bian (
William Wolfe
Lungtan
Eating at a breakfast shop the other day, I turned to an old man sitting at the table next to mine. “Hey, did you hear that the Legislative Yuan passed a bill to give everyone NT$10,000 [US$340]?” I said, pointing to a newspaper headline. The old man cursed, then said: “Yeah, the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] canceled the NT$100 billion subsidy for Taiwan Power Co and announced they would give everyone NT$10,000 instead. “Nice. Now they are saying that if electricity prices go up, we can just use that cash to pay for it,” he said. “I have no time for drivel like
A failure by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to respond to Israel’s brilliant 12-day (June 12-23) bombing and special operations war against Iran, topped by US President Donald Trump’s ordering the June 21 bombing of Iranian deep underground nuclear weapons fuel processing sites, has been noted by some as demonstrating a profound lack of resolve, even “impotence,” by China. However, this would be a dangerous underestimation of CCP ambitions and its broader and more profound military response to the Trump Administration — a challenge that includes an acceleration of its strategies to assist nuclear proxy states, and developing a wide array
Young supporters of former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) were detained for posting the names and photographs of judges and prosecutors believed to be overseeing the Core Pacific City redevelopment corruption case. The supporters should be held responsible for their actions. As for Ko’s successor, TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), he should reflect on whether his own comments are provocative and whether his statements might be misunderstood. Huang needs to apologize to the public and the judiciary. In the article, “Why does sorry seem to be the hardest word?” the late political commentator Nan Fang Shuo (南方朔) wrote
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) reportedly told the EU’s top diplomat that China does not want Russia to lose in Ukraine, because the US could shift its focus to countering Beijing. Wang made the comment while meeting with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas on July 2 at the 13th China-EU High-Level Strategic Dialogue in Brussels, the South China Morning Post and CNN reported. Although contrary to China’s claim of neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, such a frank remark suggests Beijing might prefer a protracted war to keep the US from focusing on
RSS