Another sex scandal involving members of the Legislative Yuan has gripped the nation's media. What makes this supposedly sordid tale even more fascinating is the fact that the allegations concern two celebrities turned lawmakers -- former basketball icon and current PFP lawmaker Cheng Chih-lung (
From the standpoint of the PFP, this latest ordeal is no laughing matter. After a series of sex scandals involving some of the most prominent members of the party, from secretary-general David Chung (
A good image probably means a lot more to the PFP than any other party. In fact, Soong, the PFP chairman, rose to political stardom primarily on an oppressed-martyr image. His campaign platform for the 2000 presidential race was ambiguous at best. Yet, Soong was able to garner enormous support. Had it not been for the "Chung Hsing bill scandal (
Soong's concern is evident from a less than subtle change in the attitude of the PFP's lawmakers after this latest scandal erupted. Reportedly, many, if not most, PFP lawmakers jeered at the reported affair when it first hit the news. They reportedly joked that they knew something was fishy between the two from the interactions between them. But, beginning yesterday, many PFP members began to comment that the entire thing was probably a hoax. Apparently pressured by the party into damage control, Cheng and his wife held a press conference in which the emotionally-distraught couple said very little and allowed PFP lawmaker Liu Wen-hsiung (
Perhaps an even more important question for the PFP in the long run is what does it intend to offer besides a good image? A good image cannot forever hide the fact that this party has no consistent or worthwhile policy direction. While the PFP is certainly posing serious threat to the KMT for the leadership position of the `pan-blue' camp, policywise, it continues to be perceived largely as merely a spin off of its KMT big brother. At times the PFP appears to be trying to target more moderate voters, rather than conservative unificationists in the area of cross-strait issues, but in many instances it has swung back to the far right with the KMT.
Bound to the KMT in political interest and with a rapidly decaying image, the PFP is only steps away from becoming a siamese twin of the KMT.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trip to China provides a pertinent reminder of why Taiwanese protested so vociferously against attempts to force through the cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014 and why, since Ma’s presidential election win in 2012, they have not voted in another Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate. While the nation narrowly avoided tragedy — the treaty would have put Taiwan on the path toward the demobilization of its democracy, which Courtney Donovan Smith wrote about in the Taipei Times in “With the Sunflower movement Taiwan dodged a bullet” — Ma’s political swansong in China, which included fawning dithyrambs