Now Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (
Getting re-elected was the easy part, as Ma's amazingly laid-back campaign tacitly acknowledged. But the scale of his victory -- 64 percent of the vote -- and the fact that he did this with little help from his party leadership, thereby establishing him as an almost autonomous political force, brings its own difficulties.
Ma has insisted he has no intention of running for the presidency in 2004. Of course he was also insistent about not wanting to run in the Taipei mayoral election in 1998, so we know the value of Ma's resolve. Eventually his determination to quit politics for academia was broken down, he said, by pleas from thousands of KMT supporters begging him to run.
But there are a lot of problems with a "brought to you by popular demand" Ma bid in 2004, not the least of them being KMT Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) own presidential ambitions. That Lien still has such ambitions says more about the bubble in which the KMT chairman moves than any reasonable estimation of his chances. Lien only got 24 percent of the vote in 2000 and his performance in a similar three-cornered rematch would almost certainly be worse. Ma could probably win an election while his boss almost certainly cannot. It would be a little embarrassing for Ma to bail on the citizens of Taipei to try for the top job after completing only one year of a second term, but "mature reflection on the needs of the nation" and similar bunkum will justify it. This would, however, presuppose either that Lien was willing to step aside, or that Ma was ready to lead a coup within his party.
Neither of these possibilities seems likely. Rational appraisal of his miserable chances is not something Lien has ever shown himself capable of in the past, but nor has Ma shown himself to be a party intriguer. KMT stalwarts more interested in the party's electoral success than pandering to its chairman's vanity might suggest that the choice of a candidate by polling -- the party experimented with this in Kaohsiung -- would be an intelligent move. Two problems here would be getting Lien's agreement in the first place and then making sure the poll was not rigged -- remember the so-called democratic election of Lien as chairman, somewhat spoilt by his being the only candidate for the post.
But assuming that Lien insists on running, Ma is left with the unpalatable job of resisting pressure to stab his boss in the back, while at the same time watching attempts at unifying the blue camp which may result in James Soong's (
But even if Lien stood aside, the choices for Ma aren't really much better. Soong's seniority would make him the obvious presidential candidate. Would Ma be willing to run in the vice president slot? A lot of frost would have to melt in their relationship for this to happen. The KMT would have a huge problem accepting the renegade Soong as its standard bearer. And would the blue camp dare to flout conventional wisdom to the extent of fielding a ticket with two mainlanders on it? And yet if the KMT doesn't broker a deal with Soong the blue camp's presidential vote will be split disastrously. The journalistic cliche of the moment, following the election, is to say that mayor Ma is on a roll. But given the complexities of blue camp politics we have to ask: On a roll to where?
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