I have often thought to myself over the last few years that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was a great civil rights leader, but not much of a president. His administration has often seemed incompetent, duplicitous and simply adrift. At times, it has even been embarrassing and cringe-inducing . The punishment that Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidates have been suffering in opinion polls would seem to bear me out to some degree.
Having witnessed the events surrounding the push for a referendum on a UN bid under the name "Taiwan," however, I think this judgement is now in need of serious modification. What US diplomats have described as crass electioneering on the part of the DPP may, in fact, be just that. Or, it may be the DPP coming to terms with its only reason for being.
The DPP is a civil-rights party that has failed to define itself on any other issue except the monumental one regarding the right of the people of this island to determine their collective fate, a right that may or may not be recognized by the UN, the US, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), China, international law, or academic theory, but which is decreed by something higher -- nature's God perhaps.
When Chen and the DPP are forced (by any of the aforementioned) on to any ground other than the fundamental question of the right to self-determination, they are out of their element and slip into confusion and even corruption, it would seem.
Therefore, what we are witnessing may in fact be an election forcing the normalization of Taiwanese politics (considering the circumstances), not a sudden break from what the US regards as the "status quo" (which seems to be a Taiwan that is devoted to manufacturing gizmos and protecting US intellectual property rights).
What is the "status quo" in East Asia anyway? New democracies in Taiwan and South Korea, a Japan slowly normalizing in terms of foreign relations and defense, a North Korean basketcase fiddling with nuclear bombs and kidnapping foreign nationals, and a China that is growing economically and militarily in a rapid, unpredictable, and opaque fashion.
The "status quo" is what anybody makes of it at any given time. It is hardly the basis for a foreign policy of a superpower with vital interests in the region.
US reservations about what is happening here are certainly understandable, as is its need for Chinese help in protecting Japan and South Korea from the regime in Pyongyang, but the US will find that it has been outmaneuvered by the "status quo" if it cannot come up with a more creative foreign policy than one that simply appeases Beijing.
Taiwanese political and economic development will be stunted and erratic so long as such fundamental questions regarding the sovereignty are kept "undecided" by the powers that have set themselves in judgement over Taiwan.
J. Tavis Overstreet
Chiayi
Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) led a bipartisan delegation to Taiwan in late February. During their various meetings with Taiwan’s leaders, this delegation never missed an opportunity to emphasize the strength of their cross-party consensus on issues relating to Taiwan and China. Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi are leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. Their instruction upon taking the reins of the committee was to preserve China issues as a last bastion of bipartisanship in an otherwise deeply divided Washington. They have largely upheld their pledge. But in doing so, they have performed the
It is well known that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) ambition is to rejuvenate the Chinese nation by unification of Taiwan, either peacefully or by force. The peaceful option has virtually gone out of the window with the last presidential elections in Taiwan. Taiwanese, especially the youth, are resolved not to be part of China. With time, this resolve has grown politically stronger. It leaves China with reunification by force as the default option. Everyone tells me how and when mighty China would invade and overpower tiny Taiwan. However, I have rarely been told that Taiwan could be defended to
It should have been Maestro’s night. It is hard to envision a film more Oscar-friendly than Bradley Cooper’s exploration of the life and loves of famed conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein. It was a prestige biopic, a longtime route to acting trophies and more (see Darkest Hour, Lincoln, and Milk). The film was a music biopic, a subgenre with an even richer history of award-winning films such as Ray, Walk the Line and Bohemian Rhapsody. What is more, it was the passion project of cowriter, producer, director and actor Bradley Cooper. That is the kind of multitasking -for-his-art overachievement that Oscar
Chinese villages are being built in the disputed zone between Bhutan and China. Last month, Chinese settlers, holding photographs of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), moved into their new homes on land that was not Xi’s to give. These residents are part of the Chinese government’s resettlement program, relocating Tibetan families into the territory China claims. China shares land borders with 15 countries and sea borders with eight, and is involved in many disputes. Land disputes include the ones with Bhutan (Doklam plateau), India (Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin) and Nepal (near Dolakha and Solukhumbu districts). Maritime disputes in the South China