Just when it looked as if the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) fortunes were beginning to turn the corner, the party once again finds itself in the middle of a full-blown crisis. And, yet again, it is one entirely of its own making.
The source of the trouble this time is one place that is usually not cause for concern for the party: Tainan County.
On Wednesday, the party named Legislator Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅) as its candidate for December’s county commissioner election. But in doing so, it ignored former minister of foreign affairs and two-time former county commissioner Mark Chen (陳唐山), despite numerous polls showing higher support ratings for Chen.
In going against public opinion, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) says the party has opted for a generational change. At the same time, however, Tsai is trying to stamp her authority on the party and make a clean break with the past.
Factional considerations may also have played a role. Although the party supposedly abolished its factions in 2006, Mark Chen is close to — and the preferred choice of — former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Tsai is taking a risk. A split pan-green vote would open the door for a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) victory in a place the DPP has controlled for the last 16 years. Nor is Tainan a place the DPP can afford to lose, given the challenges it faces in other parts of the country.
Pan-green incumbents in the south are already under pressure because of the central government’s uneven distribution of development funds — which has left DPP-controlled authorities with the short end of the stick — and an apparent boycott of pan-green counties and cities by Chinese tourists.
Meanwhile, the questionable legal proceedings against Chiayi County Commissioner Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) and Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) will test the pair’s ability to win re-election.
Add to that the trial involving the former first family and the damage this has done to the party’s reputation — ammunition already used by KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) ahead of the Da-an by-election — and the DPP may struggle to keep pan-green counties and cities, let alone woo pan-blue ones.
Nevertheless, the DPP must have been encouraged by last week’s showing in Da-an and the electorate’s apparent discontent with the KMT administration. It may be looking ahead to December’s elections with a new sense of optimism.
But Mark Chen’s challenge could bring that to an end.
At 74, he may still be popular, but he should also have the wisdom to acknowledge that what the party needs now is unity.
Tsai’s low-key stewardship since taking the helm last May has been a breath of fresh air compared with the tumult in the party’s recent past. But in December, she will need to show that her leadership produces results.
Mark Chen, meanwhile, must recognize that by undermining Tsai’s leadership at this crucial moment, he would not only harm Tsai, but also the party and its cause, which should be far more important than any individual.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been expansionist and contemptuous of international law. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the CCP regime has become more despotic, coercive and punitive. As part of its strategy to annex Taiwan, Beijing has sought to erase the island democracy’s international identity by bribing countries to sever diplomatic ties with Taipei. One by one, China has peeled away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners, leaving just 12 countries (mostly small developing states) and the Vatican recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Taiwan’s formal international space has shrunk dramatically. Yet even as Beijing has scored diplomatic successes, its overreach
In her article in Foreign Affairs, “A Perfect Storm for Taiwan in 2026?,” Yun Sun (孫韻), director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington, said that the US has grown indifferent to Taiwan, contending that, since it has long been the fear of US intervention — and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) inability to prevail against US forces — that has deterred China from using force against Taiwan, this perceived indifference from the US could lead China to conclude that a window of opportunity for a Taiwan invasion has opened this year. Most notably, she observes that
For Taiwan, the ongoing US and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets are a warning signal: When a major power stretches the boundaries of self-defense, smaller states feel the tremors first. Taiwan’s security rests on two pillars: US deterrence and the credibility of international law. The first deters coercion from China. The second legitimizes Taiwan’s place in the international community. One is material. The other is moral. Both are indispensable. Under the UN Charter, force is lawful only in response to an armed attack or with UN Security Council authorization. Even pre-emptive self-defense — long debated — requires a demonstrably imminent
Since being re-elected, US President Donald Trump has consistently taken concrete action to counter China and to safeguard the interests of the US and other democratic nations. The attacks on Iran, the earlier capture of deposed of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and efforts to remove Chinese influence from the Panama Canal all demonstrate that, as tensions with Beijing intensify, Washington has adopted a hardline stance aimed at weakening its power. Iran and Venezuela are important allies and major oil suppliers of China, and the US has effectively decapitated both. The US has continuously strengthened its military presence in the Philippines. Japanese Prime
RSS