As if things are not already chaotic enough in the run- up to the presidential election, the pan-blues have started talking about the danger of riots by angry mobs over the result of the election and even the possibility of President Chen Shui-bian (
On Wednesday, People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
In response, the Executive Yuan made a U-turn, agreeing to the proposal about separating the voting for the presidential election and the referendum. Since this was the proposal endorsed and supported by the pan-blues, the move was obviously intended to end disputes over how the election should be administered and wild accusations about ulterior motives on the part of the Cabinet. Contrary to such groundless accusations, the last thing that the government and the ruling party want is a riot or a state of emergency.
It is ironic that the Soong and members of the pan-blues should be the ones warning about the possibility of a riot and the imposition of martial law. After all, in the past two presidential elections, the only riot that took place was staged in 2000 by KMT members who supported Soong -- who had run as an independent after he left the KMT because it had nominated Lien Chan (
While it is the responsibility of the leaders and candidates of both camps to ask their supporters to show self-restraint before an election takes place, with the KMT's record it is imperative for pan-blue leaders to call on their supporters to show sportsmanship and respect for democracy, and not repeat their previous mistakes. However, the statements of Soong and other pan-blue camp members seem designed to accomplish precisely the opposite -- to inflame public sentiment through wild conspiracy theories and instill fear about the possibility of a state of emergency and martial law being declared. Such things are nothing to laugh at: people have vivid memories of the terror of the KMT's martial law era.
In contrast, the pan-greens, including Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (
However, having gone through two presidential elections, one is inclined to believe that the people of Taiwan have enough maturity to respect the outcome of the election -- regardless of who wins.
Because much of what former US president Donald Trump says is unhinged and histrionic, it is tempting to dismiss all of it as bunk. Yet the potential future president has a populist knack for sounding alarums that resonate with the zeitgeist — for example, with growing anxiety about World War III and nuclear Armageddon. “We’re a failing nation,” Trump ranted during his US presidential debate against US Vice President Kamala Harris in one particularly meandering answer (the one that also recycled urban myths about immigrants eating cats). “And what, what’s going on here, you’re going to end up in World War
Earlier this month in Newsweek, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to retake the territories lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. He stated: “If it is for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t [the PRC] take back the lands occupied by Russia that were signed over in the treaty of Aigun?” This was a brilliant political move to finally state openly what many Chinese in both China and Taiwan have long been thinking about the lost territories in the Russian far east: The Russian far east should be “theirs.” Granted, Lai issued
On Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) met with a delegation from the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University in California, to discuss strengthening US-Taiwan relations and enhancing peace and stability in the region. The delegation was led by James Ellis Jr, co-chair of the institution’s Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region project and former commander of the US Strategic Command. It also included former Australian minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne, influential US academics and other former policymakers. Think tank diplomacy is an important component of Taiwan’s efforts to maintain high-level dialogue with other nations with which it does
On Sept. 2, Elbridge Colby, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development, wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal called “The US and Taiwan Must Change Course” that defends his position that the US and Taiwan are not doing enough to deter the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from taking Taiwan. Colby is correct, of course: the US and Taiwan need to do a lot more or the PRC will invade Taiwan like Russia did against Ukraine. The US and Taiwan have failed to prepare properly to deter war. The blame must fall on politicians and policymakers