Democracy has thrived in Taiwan since 1988, when the despotic rule of Chiang Kai-shek
The new government formed by the DPP was born after a peaceful transfer of power. This was a big step in Taiwan's democracy. But the power transfer cannot be complete unless the KMT makes a thorough review of its faults and undertakes drastic reforms to win back public support.
The KMT's peaceful return to power would make the "rotation of political parties in power" a normal practice. Only then will Taiwan's democracy be able to catch up with those of other developed countries.
The KMT was defeated in March despite its enormous social, financial and political resources. While people rejoiced over the peaceful transfer of power, they must have worried whether the KMT could recover from its defeat and normalize the rotation of parties by returning to power later.
The KMT was driven out of power because of its bad performance. Since the inauguration of the new government, however, the KMT has had an equally awkward job ibeing an opposition party. The KMT has greatly disappointed people who have been looking forward to its comeback.
The legislature is the most important stage for an opposition party to bring about a power transition by monitoring and questioning the administration. An opposition party's legislative caucus can coordinate its members in policy promotion. In addition, the opposition's lawmakers can use their powers to question government officials and review bills to prevent irregularities.
The opposition party can also outperform the ruling party by putting forward credible policies. If it does these jobs well, an opposition party has a good probability of regaining power the next time around.
To our disappointment, the KMT has not accepted reality and adjusted to its new role as an opposition party. Instead, it has abused its majority status in the legislature -- humiliating new government officials, using its legislative power to pass bills that are difficult to implement, boycotting the policies proposed by the new government, impeding the administration by slashing its budgets, and embarrassing it by triggering a stock market slump with a massive sell-off of its share holdings, and so forth.
All these moves have reflected the KMT's attitude of "opposing for the sake of opposing" and "seeking revenge for the election defeat." The KMT has also disregarded the damage done to the government, the people and the country by their actions.
The KMT's unsettling, repugnant propositions on cross-strait relations have been the most loathsome of all its acts. On July 7, its policy committee
After many changes in cross-strait relations, the KMT proposes the codification of the guidelines issued nine years ago. At that time, people had reached no consensus on Taiwan's ultimate political status and there had been serious clashes of opinions before the introduction of the guidelines.
Former President Lee Teng-hui
As a result, Lee was intentionally passive in implementing the guidelines and convening the council. In addition, he promoted the "special state-to-state" model for cross-strait relations and thus won the admiration and recognition of the people of Taiwan.
Now the KMT has tried to back-pedal on Lee's efforts and proposed codification of the guidelines. Obviously, the party is out of its mind.
The KMT's proposal to form a confederation with China as the ultimate goal for both sides is equally outrageous. Once a confederation is established, it would be extremely hard for Taiwan to maintain its sovereignty but very easy for China to annex Taiwan given the disproportionate gap in size and population.
I really hope the KMT will change its attitude and do its job as a responsible oppositional party and work to help normalize the rotation of political power.
Lee Hong-hsi is a law professor at National Taiwan University.
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
In the 2022 book Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, academics Hal Brands and Michael Beckley warned, against conventional wisdom, that it was not a rising China that the US and its allies had to fear, but a declining China. This is because “peaking powers” — nations at the peak of their relative power and staring over the precipice of decline — are particularly dangerous, as they might believe they only have a narrow window of opportunity to grab what they can before decline sets in, they said. The tailwinds that propelled China’s spectacular economic rise over the past