The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will be breathing a collective sigh of relief today after a sustained period of electoral repudiation ended last night with its best performance since the 2004 presidential contest.
DPP Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Chen Chu (
Chen ran a more vibrant campaign than Huang and defied pundits who predicted a grave fate for the DPP in the south over the conduct of the Presidential Office and MRT construction woes in Kaohsiung. Voters ignored Chen's invisible performance as a Cabinet minister and reconnected with her in a city that seems to expect more energy from its candidates than Taipei.
Taipei City provides a more interesting picture, however. DPP mayoral candidate Frank Hsieh (
Hsieh's vote is respectable enough for him to stay in contention for the DPP nomination for president in 2008. Last night Hsieh's supporters were chanting "President Hsieh" in consolation and as a boost for his next campaign. And despite Hsieh lifting the DPP's vote by 5 percent on its 2002 result, the election was more notable for the ennui that cut into Hau's potential vote, despite Ma's backing, and the obliteration of People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
Indeed, the most important thing to come out of these contests is the crippling of the minor parties. Soong and his party are history. Humiliated after securing barely more than 4 percent of the vote, last night he said he would leave politics. His party's legislators, without their godfather and financier, can only return to the KMT fold or act as a temporary spoiler for the DPP until the next legislative election more or less wipes them out.
With a dysfunctional ex-candidate in Taipei and a dreadful performance in Kaohsiung, the Taiwan Solidarity Union's (TSU) unraveling is another demonstration of the marginalization of minor parties -- as well as the fact that former president and TSU "spiritual father" Lee Teng-hui's (
Even before the introduction of the new electoral system, it is clear that voters are tiring of clusters of splinter candidates with no coherent voice eating into the vote of major parties. After a period of extremes, Taiwanese are firming toward the center.
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
In the 2022 book Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, academics Hal Brands and Michael Beckley warned, against conventional wisdom, that it was not a rising China that the US and its allies had to fear, but a declining China. This is because “peaking powers” — nations at the peak of their relative power and staring over the precipice of decline — are particularly dangerous, as they might believe they only have a narrow window of opportunity to grab what they can before decline sets in, they said. The tailwinds that propelled China’s spectacular economic rise over the past