Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) is a woman with enemies. That is clear regardless of whether one believes her claims that she has received threats from anonymous individuals for criticizing her own party.
The most recent manifestation of this was a proposal submitted to her party’s Central Advisory Council on Sunday that unmistakeably targeted her. The proposal called for “unsuitable” legislators-at-large to resign or face scrutiny by the KMT’s Disciplinary Committee.
It is not clear what, if anything, will come of this proposal. It may be meant as a warning to Lo, who has made enemies within the KMT because of her very public criticism of some of her party’s policies and the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Lo’s sharp tongue makes her a more credible voice than other KMT figures. Unlike most criticism within the party, Lo’s positions present themselves as more issue-based and less a matter of internal rivalry and manipulation.
In one of her more remarkable assessments of late, Lo said the Control Yuan should take action against Ma if he had broken the law while mayor of Taipei. Lo was referring to Ma’s permitting the construction of a 23-story building close to the presidential residence despite potential security risks. (That remark, however, did highlight a poor understanding of the law on Lo’s part, as the Control Yuan cannot censure the president.)
Earlier this month, Lo also said that costly, portable satellite equipment that should be used during typhoon season had not been deployed this summer because of a lack of trained operators. That compelled Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) to rebut the claims, which had hit a sore spot after outrage over the mishandling of Morakot relief efforts forced a Cabinet reshuffle.
The proposal targeting Lo submitted on Sunday followed a signature drive launched by KMT youth delegates calling on her to resign over her open criticism of the government. The delegates said Lo should not go public with opinions that make the Ma administration or the party look bad. The message is, essentially: Fight behind closed doors and present a united front to the public.
But these delegates are overlooking the value of public debate, which could put pressure on the administration to answer criticism it could otherwise ignore. Lo’s arguments may also appeal to voters unhappy with the policies of the Ma administration but not opposed to the party on all matters. Considering the consistently low public support ratings for this administration, the KMT stands to benefit from showing a plurality of opinion.
As members aspiring to join the next generation of KMT leadership, the attitude of these youth delegates is discouraging. They do not indicate a growing appreciation for open debate within the KMT’s younger ranks, and that is cause for concern.
“Is the party going to control freedom of speech?” Lo asked on Sunday.
In the case of a critical voice like Lo’s, it may want to. But the KMT should also be aware that shooting down critics within the party will project not an image of unity, but of intolerance. That would strengthen the concerns of the KMT’s critics outside the party, who warn that its professed support for democracy is a charade.
When 17,000 troops from the US, the Philippines, Australia, Japan, Canada, France and New Zealand spread across the Philippine archipelago for the Balikatan military exercise, running from tomorrow through May 8, the official language would be about interoperability, readiness and regional peace. However, the strategic subtext is becoming harder to ignore: The exercises are increasingly about the military geography around Taiwan. Balikatan has always carried political weight. This year, however, the exercise looks different in ways that matter not only to Manila and Washington, but also to Taipei. What began in 2023 as a shift toward a more serious deterrence posture
Reports about Elon Musk planning his own semiconductor fab have sparked anxiety, with some warning that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) could lose key customers to vertical integration. A closer reading suggests a more measured conclusion: Musk is advancing a strategic vision of in-house chip manufacturing, but remains far from replacing the existing foundry ecosystem. For TSMC, the short-term impact is limited; the medium-term challenge lies in supply diversification and pricing pressure, only in the long term could it evolve into a structural threat. The clearest signal is Musk’s announcement that Tesla and SpaceX plan to develop a fab project dubbed “Terafab”
China’s AI ecosystem has one defining difference from Silicon Valley: It is embrace of open source. While the US’ biggest companies race to build ever more powerful systems and insist only they can control them, Chinese labs have been giving the technology away for free. Open source — making a model available for anyone to use, download and build on — once seemed a niche, nerdy topic that no one besides developers cared about. However, when a new technology is driving trillions of dollars of investments and leading to immense concentrations of power, it offered an antidote. That is part of
In late January, Taiwan’s first indigenous submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), completed its first submerged dive, reaching a depth of roughly 50m during trials in the waters off Kaohsiung. By March, it had managed a fifth dive, still well short of the deep-water and endurance tests required before the navy could accept the vessel. The original delivery deadline of November last year passed months ago. CSBC Corp, Taiwan, the lead contractor, now targets June and the Ministry of National Defense is levying daily penalties for every day the submarine remains unfinished. The Hai Kun was supposed to be
RSS