After the legislative elections, I waited to see letters from whining, complaining and backbiting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters. At first all seemed well, but of late this tripe is beginning to creep in, with Jonathan Yen's (Letters, Jan. 21, page 8) claim that it's all the media's fault (to say nothing of the fact that a substantial number of Taiwanese are too stupid to detect media bias), Hans Stockton's (Jan. 20) argument that it's simply the electoral system's fault and Charles Hong's (Jan. 18) claim that any failings of the DPP can simply be laid at the feet of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). Hayley Swinamer's (Jan. 18) teary-eyed encomium about Taiwan topped the whole thing off with praise that was apparently supposed to refer back to the DPP, while wholly discrediting the KMT.
While these opinions may at times have their merit, they are usually framed by DPP supporters who are for the most part hostile and self-serving, and simply dish out blame and deny any shortcomings of the "right team."
The DPP lost the election. Could it be Taiwan's economy that was behind the loss? Nah, the economy is fantastic -- and those that don't get it must be morons (this is often the Taipei Times' editorial line). Well, while this foreigner is doing okay teaching English in Taiwan, I can tell you that many of the people I know have indeed lamented the state of the economy, and how it does not currently provide them with enough opportunity and rewards.
Well then, is it the electoral system itself? This is a crybaby argument that ignores the fact that the KMT, like it or not, got more votes than the DPP (and though there were a few objections, nobody I saw before the election was demanding the system's annulment). Well maybe we can broaden the scope, and simply note that the other guys are all criminals and closet autocrats anyway, and so they must have done something devious in order to win. This is the dictators versus democrats view, and it is a venomous, unhelpful and simplistic approach to the issues that people in this nation face.
Instead of apportioning blame and howling about the injustice of it all, the DPP and its supporters need to wake up to reality and rein in their worst instincts. The supercilious tone of the DPP's cheerleaders, their self-righteous declamations of exactly what anyone and everyone in Taiwan should and must think and do, and their routine denigration of one half or more of Taiwan's population have gotten utterly tiresome. These are all reasons, I think, that many people are in the process of drumming the DPP out of power.
All of this is endlessly frustrating for those of us who want to see the emergence of a wise, equitable and progressive civic discourse in Taiwan.
David Pendery
Taipei
China has long sought shortcuts to developing semiconductor technologies and local supply chains by poaching engineers and experts from Taiwan and other nations. It is also suspected of stealing trade secrets from Taiwanese and US firms to fulfill its ambition of becoming a major player in the global semiconductor industry in the next decade. However, it takes more than just money and talent to build a semiconductor supply chain like the one which Taiwan and the US started to cultivate more than 30 years ago. Amid rising trade and technology tensions between the world’s two biggest economies, Beijing has become
With a new White House document in May — the “Strategic Approach to the People’s Republic of China” — the administration of US President Donald Trump has firmly set its hyper-competitive line to tackle geoeconomic and geostrategic rivalry, followed by several reinforcing speeches by Trump and other Cabinet-level officials. By identifying China as a near-equal rival, the strategy resonates well with the bipartisan consensus on China in today’s severely divided US. In the face of China’s rapidly growing aggression, the move is long overdue, yet relevant for the maintenance of the international “status quo.” The strategy seems to herald a new
To say that this year has been eventful for China and the rest of the world would be something of an understatement. First, the US-China trade dispute, already simmering for two years, reached a boiling point as Washington tightened the noose around China’s economy. Second, China unleashed the COVID-19 pandemic on the world, wreaking havoc on an unimaginable scale and turning the People’s Republic of China into a common target of international scorn. Faced with a mounting crisis at home, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) rashly decided to ratchet up military tensions with neighboring countries in a misguided attempt to divert the
Toward the end of former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) final term in office, there was much talk about his legacy. Ma himself would likely prefer history books to enshrine his achievements in reducing cross-strait tensions. He might see his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore in 2015 as the high point. However, given his statements in the past few months, he might be remembered more for contributing to the breakup of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). We are still talking about Ma and his legacy because it is inextricably tied to the so-called “1992 consensus” as the bedrock of his
RSS