Representative to the US King Pu-tsung (金溥聰), top aide to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), is to take over as the secretary-general of the National Security Council. The latest appointment — after King’s previous return to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in 2009 to serve as the party’s secretary-general — is a part of a strategy for November’s local elections and preparation for cross-strait political talks.
As the most trusted Ma aide, King is always the last resort for Ma whenever his administration or the KMT faces challenges. King broke his promise of not joining the KMT or the Cabinet upon returning from the US and taking over as the KMT secretary-general in 2009 after the party suffered a significant setback in local government elections.
This time, the prospects for the KMT’s performance in the November seven-in-one elections are low amid low approval ratings for the Ma administration. Public grudges over the slow economy and other government policies could also influence the party’s performance in the 2016 presidential election.
As Ma and the KMT face another crisis in the upcoming elections, it is no surprise that King will return to Taiwan and work closely with Ma again. While the overall election strategies have been decided for the pan-blue camp, King’s return carries a symbolic significance as Ma seeks to boost the party’s morale and prepare for the election battle.
King’s other objective as the new top official in the National Security Council will be cross-strait affairs. Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) are to meet in Nanjing, China, on Tuesday, and the high-profile meeting between top officials from the two sides of the Taiwan Strait will be the first step toward cross-strait political talks.
As the top national security official, King will assist Ma with his cross-strait policy priorities, including the legislative review of the cross-strait service trade agreement, amending the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) and negotiating follow-up cross-strait agreements. He will also have to attempt to carry out Ma’s goal of speeding up the nation’s participation in regional economic integration and promoting regional peace.
For the Ma administration, the Wang-Zhang meeting and the cross-strait negotiations are part of preparations for a meeting between Ma and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Carrying out this ultimate goal for Ma as he seeks to define his legacy during his second term is a top priority for King.
The appointment also led to a personnel reshuffle in the Cabinet, with Fair Trade Commission Vice Chairman Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) taking over as the Cabinet spokesman and Representative to the UK Shen Lyu-hsun (沈呂巡) filling King’s post as the representative to the US.
Amid the Ma administration’s poor performance and a split KMT on an unresolved rift between Ma and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) over Wang’s alleged improper lobbying, King faces greater challenges this time trying to save Ma’s reputation and carry out his mission.
Because much of what former US president Donald Trump says is unhinged and histrionic, it is tempting to dismiss all of it as bunk. Yet the potential future president has a populist knack for sounding alarums that resonate with the zeitgeist — for example, with growing anxiety about World War III and nuclear Armageddon. “We’re a failing nation,” Trump ranted during his US presidential debate against US Vice President Kamala Harris in one particularly meandering answer (the one that also recycled urban myths about immigrants eating cats). “And what, what’s going on here, you’re going to end up in World War
Earlier this month in Newsweek, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to retake the territories lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. He stated: “If it is for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t [the PRC] take back the lands occupied by Russia that were signed over in the treaty of Aigun?” This was a brilliant political move to finally state openly what many Chinese in both China and Taiwan have long been thinking about the lost territories in the Russian far east: The Russian far east should be “theirs.” Granted, Lai issued
On Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) met with a delegation from the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University in California, to discuss strengthening US-Taiwan relations and enhancing peace and stability in the region. The delegation was led by James Ellis Jr, co-chair of the institution’s Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region project and former commander of the US Strategic Command. It also included former Australian minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne, influential US academics and other former policymakers. Think tank diplomacy is an important component of Taiwan’s efforts to maintain high-level dialogue with other nations with which it does
On Sept. 2, Elbridge Colby, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development, wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal called “The US and Taiwan Must Change Course” that defends his position that the US and Taiwan are not doing enough to deter the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from taking Taiwan. Colby is correct, of course: the US and Taiwan need to do a lot more or the PRC will invade Taiwan like Russia did against Ukraine. The US and Taiwan have failed to prepare properly to deter war. The blame must fall on politicians and policymakers