Way back in December 1999, prior to the election of the first Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) government, then Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) wrote a piece in the Taipei Times arguing that direct cross-strait flights were viable and necessary. Companies from Taiwan and China could form a consortium to work a way around the diplomatic impasse, he argued.
It was strong stuff for a DPP legislator at the time, if only because it was pragmatic and realistic.
Shen was also prepared to do something that most DPP hacks would not dare: criticize former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) for her frequently absurd and embarrassing remarks, regardless of the subject.
For this willingness to speak on matters with clarity and intelligence, even when it conflicted with the ideological preferences of his party, Shen attracted a degree of support from voters who were sick and tired of partisan wrangling. His approach after that time was to forge a middle ground and from that space find new solutions.
But in early 2004, Shen began to snipe at his own party, the administration and the first family after a brief but strange disappearance, in the process alienating his colleagues and amusing his opponents — and thus securing the tag of “lone bird.”
Then his political star fell in the most humiliating manner when he failed to gain re-election to the legislature that year. For a man who apparently enjoyed so much support from a pragmatic electorate, the result showed he had lost touch with a functional political base.
It was a terrible blow: He didn’t just lose his seat — he lost his ability to speak for anyone other than himself.
Since then, Shen has been prone to erratic or self-absorbed behavior — but always self-promoting. He has spent endless hours on pro-blue-camp talkshows in an attempt to forge his beloved middle ground, trying to make sense out of cable TV drivel and in the process dignifying some of the nation’s most discredited politicians.
Shen is now back in the limelight with a failed nomination for the vice presidency of the Control Yuan. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) apparently saw in him a middle ground figure who could speak to both sides of the political spectrum, and who possibly made the symbolism of the nomination of hardline Mainlander Wang Chien-shien (王建火宣) to the Control Yuan presidency more palatable.
Shen’s latest rejection — this time at the hands of the legislature — is a sign of how Ma’s would-be agenda of inclusiveness is being disregarded by a legislature under his party’s —not his — control.
For Shen, however, the appropriate feeling is one of pity rather than indignation.
Despite his pragmatism, his sincere attempts to open a dialogue with the KMT, his appeal for inter-party consensus and, crucially, support from the president, he has failed to comprehend the politics of the day. The KMT has laughed in his face and voted him into oblivion.
Shen has been humiliated all over again — by people he had always thought could be his friends.
It is therefore time for him to do what so many promise when things go wrong in politics, yet so few achieve: retire from this seedy profession and, while there is still time, forge a new career in his twilight years that bears some semblance of dignity.
In the event of a war with China, Taiwan has some surprisingly tough defenses that could make it as difficult to tackle as a porcupine: A shoreline dotted with swamps, rocks and concrete barriers; conscription for all adult men; highways and airports that are built to double as hardened combat facilities. This porcupine has a soft underbelly, though, and the war in Iran is exposing it: energy. About 39,000 ships dock at Taiwan’s ports each year, more than the 30,000 that transit the Strait of Hormuz. About one-fifth of their inbound tonnage is coal, oil, refined fuels and liquefied natural gas (LNG),
To counter the CCP’s escalating threats, Taiwan must build a national consensus and demonstrate the capability and the will to fight. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) often leans on a seductive mantra to soften its threats, such as “Chinese do not kill Chinese.” The slogan is designed to frame territorial conquest (annexation) as a domestic family matter. A look at the historical ledger reveals a different truth. For the CCP, being labeled “family” has never been a guarantee of safety; it has been the primary prerequisite for state-sanctioned slaughter. From the forced starvation of 150,000 civilians at the Siege of Changchun
The two major opposition parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), jointly announced on Tuesday last week that former TPP lawmaker Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) would be their joint candidate for Chiayi mayor, following polling conducted earlier this month. It is the first case of blue-white (KMT-TPP) cooperation in selecting a joint candidate under an agreement signed by their chairpersons last month. KMT and TPP supporters have blamed their 2024 presidential election loss on failing to decide on a joint candidate, which ended in a dramatic breakdown with participants pointing fingers, calling polls unfair, sobbing and walking
In the opening remarks of her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) framed her visit as a historic occasion. In his own remarks, Xi had also emphasized the history of the relationship between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Where they differed was that Cheng’s account, while flawed by its omissions, at least partially corresponded to reality. The meeting was certainly historic, albeit not in the way that Cheng and Xi were signaling, and not from the perspective
RSS