Recent reports indicate that Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) has said he is willing to meet with leaders from across the political spectrum to discuss ways to ease current political tensions.
Ministers without portfolio Lin Si-yao (林錫耀) and Lin Wan-i (林萬億) have met with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) leaders for preliminary talks.
KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has also said he is preparing to meet Su, so it seems that the green and blue leaders are gearing up for a new round of discussions.
Su is actually giving a generous political favor to Ma.
Ma has not benefited from the anti-President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) campaign to this point. The only force that could truly topple Chen is a recall by the legislature.
It doesn't matter how many people the street protest attracts, nor what kind of creative methods they use, because the campaign lacks the legal authority to bring Chen down.
Nor does the campaign help Ma's plans for the 2008 presidential election -- because Chen can't run for a third term.
If Chen isn't recalled, it will be a big boost to the pan-green camp's power and influence, while the anti-Chen campaign will prove to have been a fool's errand.
But if it turns out badly for Chen, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will still be seen to have acted courageously, and will find itself in a stronger position in 2008.
The anti-Chen campaign won't do Ma any good, regardless of its success or failure.
On the other hand, the turmoil, economic loss, traffic obstruction, green-camp galvanization and ethnic tensions that have been whipped up by the anti-Chen movement could be harmful for Ma.
The sit-in can't attract tens of thousands of protesters every day because people have to go to work and are reluctant to come out in poor weather. Its dwindling numbers have hindered the momentum of the anti-Chen movement, so, as far as Ma is concerned, resolving the conflict is the top priority.
If the DPP wants to reap any political benefit from this situation, the smartest approach would be to sit quietly and watch what happens. While the DPP waits patiently for the results of the investigation into Chen's alleged misbehavior, the pressure from the disorder and the responsibility for outbreaks of violence will fall on Ma's shoulders.
Ma has no choice but to allow the protests to continue, because the public's right to assemble and oppose political leaders is part of the foundation of a democratic society.
Su's actions help Ma get off the hook over a movement that he did not initiate. It helps Ma regain control. It also relieves him of the burden that the protests have placed on him, and will help his chances in the 2008 presidential campaign.
A third advantage is that in an atmosphere in which Ma is talking with the government, any DPP demands for a referendum on reclaiming the KMT's stolen assets and any attacks on Ma for allegedly abusing his mayoral allowance will likely fade, if not disappear altogether.
Bill Chang is a former deputy director of the Chinese Affairs Department of the Democratic Progressive Party.
Translated by Marc Langer
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