It was announced last week that an election watchdog made up of prominent figures from at home and abroad would be set up to observe Taiwan’s Jan. 14 presidential and legislative elections.
The committee is tasked with ensuring that the presidential and legislative polls are free and fair, and it will also observe the four-month transitional period after the elections, a role that could prove crucial considering recent reports on Chinese meddling in the elections.
Although President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) denied that Beijing backed his re-election when he was interviewed by the BBC’s Chinese-language Web site late last month, numerous media reports have suggested otherwise.
Following an analysis published on Nov. 25 by Japan’s Sankei Shimbun which said that China is searching for ways to influence Taiwan’s presidential election, the latest issue of the Chinese-language Next Magazine yesterday reported that Yang Xiaodu (楊曉渡), head of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front Work Department’s Shanghai office, voiced his support for Ma’s re-election at a meeting with a visiting Taiwanese group headed by Chang Chao-kuo (張朝國), who also happens to be deputy honorary chairman of Ma’s campaign support group.
It now looks as though the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will have to compete not only against Ma and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), but also against the CCP, which has apparently decided that its support for Ma no longer needs to be kept secret, the Next Magazine report claims.
People First Party Chairman and presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) said that “Taiwanese need to be their own masters.”
The question is how can Taiwanese be their own masters when the KMT has joined hands with the CCP to campaign for Ma’s re-election.
While it is genuinely touching that so many international friends care enough about Taiwan’s democracy to want to serve on the election watchdog, Taiwan’s fate ultimately rests in the hands of Taiwanese themselves and their votes.
Anyone who takes pride in being Taiwanese and values the nation’s transformation into a genuine democracy is duty-bound to resist China’s threats and inducements, and to stand up and denounce anyone who uses outside forces to influence the outcome of the election. Any such act is clearly detrimental to the health of Taiwanese democracy.
Both Soong and DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday told China to keep its hands off Taiwan’s elections.
Ma’s re-election campaign office also said it is firmly opposed to any Chinese interference in the elections, but that is simply not enough.
As the sitting president, it is Ma’s responsibility to uphold Taiwan’s dignity as a democratic country. It is therefore incumbent upon him to issue a stern statement condemning Chinese attempts to influence Taiwan’s presidential election.
Failure to do so only indicates to Taiwanese that Ma is unable or unwilling to defend the nation’s pride and sovereignty, and the he does not deserve a second term in office.
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
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