The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) faithful would have been delighted that People First Party Chairman (PFP) James Soong (
The DPP faithful would also have been heartened by the Taiwan Solidarity Union pick, broadcaster Clara Chou (
But then the DPP let its faithful down with a bizarre display of its own: the party's deadline for candidate registration passing without valid applications -- a poor show, indeed.
Former DPP legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (
An unexpected, last-minute push by former Taipei County commissioner You Ching (
Hsieh's record as Kaohsiung mayor, while uneven, is not to be underestimated. The problem with Hsieh is that he is tainted by his unremarkable performance as premier and his administrative links to the corruption that spawned the Kaohsiung labor riot. Even more than this, he is tiring of the party that got him where he is. By hinting at taking a direction away from the DPP, he threatens to follow in the tradition of disaffected, egomaniacal party chairmen like Hsu Hsin-liang (
The only other notable feature of the race so far is that the pan-blue camp has been much more energetic in culling candidates. The first to go were the odious former KMT spokesman Alex Tsai (
Ma's preferred successor, former deputy Taipei mayor Yeh Chin-chuan (
Then there's former Environmental Protection Administration head Hau Lung-bin (
So who will be Taipei mayor? Based on this gaggle, it barely matters. Taipei's voters have demonstrated that ability and performance are of marginal interest to them, and the caliber of candidates reflects this. The best that can be expected, therefore, is that the winner will be someone barely better than ordinary.
In other words, another Ma Ying-jeou.
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