The question of whether Liao Cheng-hao (
The KMT and PFP are both facing tremendous internal repercussions from their proposed joint venture. Many people in the KMT are unwilling to forfeit their campaign benefits. The PFP appears to have a plethora of would-be candidates scrambling to grab votes under the canopy of James Soong (
The KMT and PFP want Liao, a popular former justice minister with a good reputation, to run for county commissioner in Taipei County. Liao is close to KMT chairman Lien Chan (
The prospects for cooperation between the DPP and Lee's new party don't look much better. As Lee's associate Huang Chu-wen (
The DPP and Lee's group are also facing confusion over their party platforms. The ruling party was shell-shocked by the huge turnout at the CKS airport last week to greet Lee on his return from the US. It is very likely that pro-independence voters, who have so far supported the DPP, may vote for Lee's candidates instead. Partitioning their platforms has become a pre-condition for cooperation between the DPP and Lee's party.
The DPP has also been hurt by criticism from former chairman Lin I-hsiung (
Cooperation -- whether in politics, between nations or on the playing field -- always sounds good in the abstract. Taiwan's politicians and parties are now finding out just how difficult it is to translate an ideal into reality -- especially when one's partner could very well turn out to be one's biggest enemy. Perhaps this is the true face of politics.
In a stark reminder of China’s persistent territorial overreach, Pema Wangjom Thongdok, a woman from Arunachal Pradesh holding an Indian passport, was detained for 18 hours at Shanghai Pudong Airport on Nov. 24 last year. Chinese immigration officials allegedly informed her that her passport was “invalid” because she was “Chinese,” refusing to recognize her Indian citizenship and claiming Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet. Officials had insisted that Thongdok, an Indian-origin UK resident traveling for a conference, was not Indian despite her valid documents. India lodged a strong diplomatic protest, summoning the Chinese charge d’affaires in Delhi and demanding
In the past 72 hours, US Senators Roger Wicker, Dan Sullivan and Ruben Gallego took to social media to publicly rebuke the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over the defense budget. I understand that Taiwan’s head is on the chopping block, and the urgency of its security situation cannot be overstated. However, the comments from Wicker, Sullivan and Gallego suggest they have fallen victim to a sophisticated disinformation campaign orchestrated by an administration in Taipei that treats national security as a partisan weapon. The narrative fed to our allies claims the opposition is slashing the defense budget to kowtow to the Chinese
In a Taipei Times editorial published almost three years ago (“Macron goes off-piste,” April 13, 2023, page 8), French President Emmanuel Macron was criticized for comments he made immediately after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing. Macron had spoken of the need for his country to find a path on Chinese foreign policy no longer aligned with that of the US, saying that continuing to follow the US agenda would sacrifice the EU’s strategic autonomy. At the time, Macron was criticized for gifting Xi a PR coup, and the editorial said that he had been “persuaded to run
The wrap-up press event on Feb. 1 for the new local period suspense film Murder of the Century (世紀血案), adapted from the true story of the Lin family murders (林家血案) in 1980, has sparked waves of condemnation in the past week, as well as a boycott. The film is based on the shocking, unsolved murders that occurred at then-imprisoned provincial councilor and democracy advocate Lin I-hsiung’s (林義雄) residence on Feb. 28, 1980, while Lin was detained for his participation in the Formosa Incident, in which police and protesters clashed during a pro-democracy rally in Kaohsiung organized by Formosa Magazine on Dec.
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