In response to President Chen Shui-bian's (
Judging from the Taiwan Affairs Office's threat, it's not difficult to see that China has accepted the fact that the presidential election is over, and that Chen will continue to rule Taiwan for another four years. China showed its severity to Chen in the statement only because he's Beijing's true opponent on the cross-strait issue, rather than Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
Yes, the election is over! The recount problem will be resolved by the judicial system. Not only Chen himself but also new Cabinet members have already taken up office. Moreover, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is holding its primaries for the year-end legislative elections, and is promoting various party reforms. The DPP's ambitious young legislators even proposed a "new cultural discourse" to ease post-election ethnic conflict.
The DPP supporters have also changed their attitude of tolerance by playing the role of a "monitor." For example, they stood up and showed their anger against vote-buying during the party's legislative primaries last week.
This is a good beginning. We hope that both Chen's party and his supporters persist in their efforts. They do not deserve a great beginning with a weak ending. The DPP has won support by its reform and anti-"black gold" slogans. People will despise the party if it breaks its promises.
The election conflict has been continuing for two months now. After much difficulty, social order has been restored. Chen and his government must now show their magnanimity, daring and resolve, avoid getting bogged down in disputes with the blue camp, and fulfill their campaign promises. They must not shrink from the constitutional reform project as a result of China's threats. China is, after all, always threatening Taiwan.
The pan-blue camp and its supporters are still harboring the illusion that the presidential election has not been finalized. One leader refuses to step down, and another one resists reform. They also don't want to face the issue of political positioning, but instead monotonously repeat the slogan "No truth concerning the March 19 shooting, no president." Calls from legislators in the KMT's localization faction to deal with these issues are ignored. If the pan-blue camp does not face reality and instead uses "truth" as an excuse to perpetuate the situation, they will suffer in the year-end legislative elections.
Where is the truth about the Lafayette-frigate-related death of Yin Ching-feng (
The presidential election is over and the public is exhausted. The pan-blue camp should take a rest, adjust its attitude and become a responsible opposition party. It lost this presidential election, but there are more to come. After reorganization and consolidation, the pan-blue camp will still have a chance to recover lost political ground. We hope the pan-blue camp will hurry to answer the calls for reform and propose platforms more attractive than the DPP's, paving the way for positive competition.
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