Yesterday, People's First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
In fact, Soong had just suffered a devastating defeat right before his departure to the US. In the legislative election his party lost the most seats of any. A few months earlier, the team of Chinese Nationalist Party Chairman Lien Chan (
Soong has the political chaos in the Legislative Yuan to thank for his miraculous ascent back into political favor. Still unable to win enough seats to enjoy a legislative majority, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is worried sick that the nightmare scenario of the past four years -- in which a pan-blue legislative majority made up of KMT and PFP lawmakers cooperated to block much important work -- will continue.
The DPP will do just about anything to win the PFP's cooperation. Take for example the upcoming election for the Legislative Yuan speaker and vice speaker. The DPP has indicated that it is keeping all options open -- including supporting PFP candidates for both the speaker and vice speaker offices -- in the hope of wooing over the PFP. In fact, it's generally believed that President Chen deliberately postponed the announcement of the appointment of the next premier, just in case Soong would be interested in the post.
On the other hand, as much as Soong loathes Chen, he has also been waiting for the chance to teach the KMT some lessons. In retrospect, the frictions between the PFP and KMT were probably inevitable. Soong can never forget how close he was to the presidency in 2000, when he trailed Chen by a thin margin of votes. He must have felt belittled in agreeing to serve as Lien's sidekick in last year's presidential election, which made it easy for him to feel taken for granted and taken advantage of in cooperating with the KMT.
At first Lien and the KMT probably thought talk of cooperation between DPP and PFP was a big joke. After all, the two parties couldn't be further apart in terms of political ideologies. However, the two arch-enemies experimented with cooperation in the review of the bill seeking to regulate ill-gotten assets. That finally got the KMT's attention.
Realizing that he is now the crucial political weight that will determine which side of the seesaw comes up and which side down, Soong wouldn't say -- even as late as yesterday -- whether he will support Wang for the speaker's office. The problem is this: here in Taiwan, it's sometimes hard not to feel saddened about how power is obtained.
There is much evidence that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is sending soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and is learning lessons for a future war against Taiwan. Until now, the CCP has claimed that they have not sent PLA personnel to support Russian aggression. On 18 April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskiy announced that the CCP is supplying war supplies such as gunpowder, artillery, and weapons subcomponents to Russia. When Zelinskiy announced on 9 April that the Ukrainian Army had captured two Chinese nationals fighting with Russians on the front line with details
On a quiet lane in Taipei’s central Daan District (大安), an otherwise unremarkable high-rise is marked by a police guard and a tawdry A4 printout from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicating an “embassy area.” Keen observers would see the emblem of the Holy See, one of Taiwan’s 12 so-called “diplomatic allies.” Unlike Taipei’s other embassies and quasi-consulates, no national flag flies there, nor is there a plaque indicating what country’s embassy this is. Visitors hoping to sign a condolence book for the late Pope Francis would instead have to visit the Italian Trade Office, adjacent to Taipei 101. The death of
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), joined by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), held a protest on Saturday on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei. They were essentially standing for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is anxious about the mass recall campaign against KMT legislators. President William Lai (賴清德) said that if the opposition parties truly wanted to fight dictatorship, they should do so in Tiananmen Square — and at the very least, refrain from groveling to Chinese officials during their visits to China, alluding to meetings between KMT members and Chinese authorities. Now that China has been defined as a foreign hostile force,
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