With public approval ratings that have sunk to levels even below those of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) at his nadir and assailed by both the pan-green and pan-blue camps over his government’s execrable performance in recent months, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) ongoing trip abroad could revamp his image. However, based on his performance in New York, where he made a brief stop earlier this week, that is unlikely to happen.
Foreign trips are a tried, tested and, above all, convenient opportunity for struggling national leaders to garner support by reaching out to overseas compatriots and brushing elbows with influential figures.
However, Ma, whose approval ratings are approaching single-digit figures — in striking contrast with his 90 percent support rating in his re-election as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman last month — did not feel that it was necessary to reach out in this way.
On arriving, Ma was greeted by American Institute in Taiwan Chairman Raymond Burghardt and later met with several high-ranking US officials. However, when it came to interacting with overseas Taiwanese, he skipped it completely. He instead chose to dine with the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, an organization for people who have no connection whatsoever with Taiwan. Of all the people he could have met while in New York, this is the group he chose to spend time with.
One can only guess at the reasons, but one thing is certain: public dissatisfaction with the Ma administration is now such that even the blue camp is unlikely to welcome him back with open arms, which leaves him with only organizations of overseas Chinese who have never lived in Taiwan and whose association was created when Taiwan was under Japanese rule.
It is also possible that his entourage was seeking to protect him from the protests that were expected to erupt during his visit and that did materialize, both during his dinner with the association and later at New York University.
Apprehensions were such that even the press corps that accompanied him on his visit was not allowed to attend the dinner. Instead, reporters were told to go shopping. Journalists — even those in the pan-blue media that have always stood by Ma — were disgruntled. It seems that the media, at least the Taiwanese media, is now something to be dreaded by the Ma administration.
Given all this, it is tempting to conclude that Ma did not embark on his foreign trip to improve his image with the electorate, but rather to run away from the mess at home, just as he did on Aug. 3 when an estimated 250,000 people protested on Ketagalan Boulevard over the abuse of cadets in the military. Instead of facing the heat, Ma scurried away to Alishan.
As he is wined and dined by overseas Chinese and foreign leaders, smiling and behaving as if everything is fine, the nation’s military is facing one of its most serious crises. Such is the severity of the situation that a real leader, someone who actually takes to heart the fate of the country, would have canceled his trip abroad to take charge of the domestic situation.
Ma’s indifference and his callousness in the face of the public’s suffering are traits that even his wife, Chou Mei-ching (周美青), has mentioned in public. Now he has gone beyond that and is failing to meet his responsibilities by running away.
Some pan-blue media outlets have begun asking in their editorials how Taiwan can possibly endure three more years of this administration, whose performance, especially during Ma’s second term, now threatens the nation with catastrophe — the Taipei Times seconds that question.
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
RSS