The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) national congress, during which Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) was officially enthroned as the party’s presidential candidate, was a farce. It wanted to give the impression of unity, but was completely lacking in any incentive or desire for unity. Its star, Hung herself, even shied away from any actual substance regarding how she actually intends to fight the coming campaign. She talked at length in platitudes and sound bites without really saying anything.
The “Little Red Pepper” proved very flexible, stowing for a second the idea of “one China, same interpretation” and focusing on the so-called “1992 consensus.” This was no accident, as any evocation of the “same interpretation” would only get in the way of her “sacred duty” and “grand mission.” What exactly is her “sacred duty” and her “grand mission”? She chose not to go into that. The national congress had agreed to accept her as the party’s presidential candidate, but, in her acceptance speech, there was no mention of the position of “president of the Republic of China (ROC).”
Had Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) failed to say that she was running for ROC president, the pro-unification media would have been all over her, baying for blood. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is quite content to be seen as the head of an area, while Hung has felt uncomfortable talking about the very existence of the ROC. You cannot help but feel that this is because she cannot bring herself to speak of the existence of the position of ROC president.
She did, on several occasions, mention the term “ROC,” and uttered the word “president” once. However, on no occasion did she string the two terms together. All she managed was “after I am elected president.” The first time she spoke of the ROC, it was in a historical context, talking about how the KMT old guard had traveled to Nanjing to commemorate the founding of the ROC by Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙).
For Hung, there is a difference between Taiwan and the ROC: They are on two different levels. She wants to “sincerely love Taiwan, and protect the ROC with [her] life.” Her sincerity goes as far as to step back from acknowledging the existence of the ROC, and her saying that the ROC would only win if she is elected president is a betrayal of her own true conviction.
The Little Red Pepper’s stated sacred mission has nothing to do with freedom, democracy or justice; it only knows the language of pro-China, pro-unification sentiment, dismissing Taiwan’s democracy as “populism,” and absolving Ma and his administration of any responsibility.
Democracy enables citizens to oust incompetent governments with the power invested in them through the ballot box. Ma has proved himself to be completely incompetent at the nation’s helm, and yet he still feels able to say that he owes Taiwanese no apology. Hung tried to place the blame for the Ma administration’s incompetence at the feet of the DPP, and the KMT thinks that Taiwanese owe it something. It is time for the KMT to relinquish power.
James Wang is a media commentator.
Translated by Paul Cooper
What began on Feb. 28 as a military campaign against Iran quickly became the largest energy-supply disruption in modern times. Unlike the oil crises of the 1970s, which stemmed from producer-led embargoes, US President Donald Trump is the first leader in modern history to trigger a cascading global energy crisis through direct military action. In the process, Trump has also laid bare Taiwan’s strategic and economic fragilities, offering Beijing a real-time tutorial in how to exploit them. Repairing the damage to Persian Gulf oil and gas infrastructure could take years, suggesting that elevated energy prices are likely to persist. But the most
Taiwan should reject two flawed answers to the Eswatini controversy: that diplomatic allies no longer matter, or that they must be preserved at any cost. The sustainable answer is to maintain formal diplomatic relations while redesigning development relationships around transparency, local ownership and democratic accountability. President William Lai’s (賴清德) canceled trip to Eswatini has elicited two predictable reactions in Taiwan. One camp has argued that the episode proves Taiwan must double down on support for every remaining diplomatic ally, because Beijing is tightening the screws, and formal recognition is too scarce to risk. The other says the opposite: If maintaining
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), during an interview for the podcast Lanshuan Time (蘭萱時間) released on Monday, said that a US professor had said that she deserved to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize following her meeting earlier this month with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Cheng’s “journey of peace” has garnered attention from overseas and from within Taiwan. The latest My Formosa poll, conducted last week after the Cheng-Xi meeting, shows that Cheng’s approval rating is 31.5 percent, up 7.6 percentage points compared with the month before. The same poll showed that 44.5 percent of respondents
India’s semiconductor strategy is undergoing a quiet, but significant, recalibration. With the rollout of India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0, New Delhi is signaling a shift away from ambition-driven leaps toward a more grounded, capability-led approach rooted in industrial realities and institutional learning. Rather than attempting to enter the most advanced nodes immediately, India has chosen to prioritize mature technologies in the 28-nanometer to 65-nanometer range. That would not be a retreat, but a strategic alignment with domestic capabilities, market demand and global supply chain gaps. The shift carries the imprimatur of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, indicating that the recalibration is
RSS