Today marks the end of President Chen Shui-bian's (
Since their fall from power, the opposition has been lamenting, "It's been too long," while the ruling party -- looking at its plummeting popularity rating -- has been shaking its head and saying, "Too soon." Meanwhile, the general public have been watching the stock market slump and shouting, "Too miserable."
In half a year, Chen's popularity rating has fallen from 80 percent to 46 percent. The rise and fall of a president's poll ratings are perfectly natural, but now that Chen's ratings have fallen below 50 percent in the face of the opposition's recall drive, the chances of the recall drive has also risen. Taiwan has seen its assets reduced by one half as the TAIEX has fallen from around 9,000 points to yesterday's 4,845 points. Given the current financial situation, there is a rather strong possibility that a financial crisis may break out early next year.
Apart from the crackdown on "black gold," the new government has had very little success in its first six months as the Executive Yuan fails to get its policies implemented. Meanwhile, unemployment has risen and business investments have fallen.
Taiwan's chaos has its roots in politics. To begin with, Taiwan has a semi-presidential Constitution, which is a difficult system to implement. For his part, Chen is unwilling to share the presidential power with the opposition. His is a minority government, both in terms of his own mandate and in terms of the number of seats his party has in the legislature. Going against these forces, Chen first set up a "government for all the people" and invited the KMT's Tang Fei (
Seeing the urgency of the internal problems, Chen has set up a nine-member team in order to expand the DPP's participation in the policymaking process.
Chen's fluctuating political direction has aggravated the political upheaval. After coming to office, Chen abandoned the strategy of political integration and gave priority to hotly debated DPP policies. In anticipation of next year's elections, he announced the halting of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and the postponement of a final decision on the Meinung Dam. These have deepened worries in business circles.
Before the election, Chen advocated respect for market mechanisms. But after taking office, he activated the National Security Fund (NSF) to intervene in the stock market. Now the market tumbles, as it did yesterday, once the NSF takes a break from the market. The government still does not have a comprehensive package of industrial policies. The Executive Yuan has decided to hold a national economic conference early next year, but the current problems demand immediate action.
Chen is now like a bird in a political cage of his own making. Over the past six months, the political system, partisan relations, policies and personal style have all been debated. Chen has also learnt all he needs to learn about solutions. The question now is what choices he will make. Having less than 50 percent popular support is a major alarm. If he does not act to salvage the situation now, everything will be too late.
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under