Last year we had a party; this year we have a hangover. How else to describe the gloom with which we greet Chen Shui-bian's (
The problem with "Taiwan's first-ever democratic transfer of power" as the events of a year ago were billed is that the transfer was, of course, so limited. And perhaps the most serious criticism to make of the president's performance in the past year is that he seems neither to have understood the limitations on that power nor found ways to overcome them. The book An Account of Lee Teng-hui in Power (
Given the DPP's minority position in the legislature, implementing pet projects was never going to be easy. But Chen had the advantage of the bully pulpit of the presidency, instant media attention whenever needed, to take his projects to the people, to initiate a public debate which could engender a demand for change that the legislature dared not stand in the way of. Eliciting change should have been the ever-present refrain of the government. Perceptive observers might have expected this opportunity to be missed from the tenor of Chen's inauguration speech, which famously, was more about what he wouldn't do than what he would.
The debacle over the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (
The fight against black gold and the death of the 3-3-3 welfare project were other opportunities where skillful handling of public relations could have cowed the legislature. Most of the anti-black gold legislation has been delayed in the legislature indefinitely by the KMT which obviously doesn't want its corrupt practices messed with in an election year. So why didn't the government name and shame? Because it wanted cooperation from the KMT? It never got any so what did it have to lose? Meanwhile if the wonders of the 3-3-3 project had been talked about longer, if people were led to think that this was something that was actually going to happen, the largess was going to be forthcoming, woe betide the opposition that wanted to stand in its way.
The main reason for disappointment with Chen's first year, of course, is that so little has been achieved. The main criticism of Chen in this regard is not that he lacks vision -- unlike say Lien Chan (
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Can US dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Beijing help avert a Taiwan Strait crisis? Or is US President Joe Biden playing into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hands? With America preoccupied with the wars in Europe and the Middle East, Biden is seeking better relations with Xi’s regime. The goal is to responsibly manage US-China competition and prevent unintended conflict, thereby hoping to create greater space for the two countries to work together in areas where their interests align. The existing wars have already stretched US military resources thin, and the last thing Biden wants is yet another war.