Presidential election crucial
The outcome of next year’s crucial presidential election will determine the survival of Taiwan’s democracy.
At the center of everyone’s attention is Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜). He was an outcast from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), but succeeded in defeating a superior Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) opponent.
His spectacular popularity online carried other KMT candidates to victory in many other cities in last year’s elections, thus reviving the KMT’s hope of regaining the presidency next year.
The leading potential presidential candidates are Han, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘), also of the KMT; Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) an independent; and from the DPP, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and former premier William Lai (賴清德).
Since the KMT candidates openly endorse Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) policy on the status of Taiwan, they should be classified as Chinese Communist Party (CCP) proxies. Ko should also be included as he considers Taiwanese and Chinese to be “one family” and not enemies.
An analysis of the DPP’s disastrous losses in last year’s elections reveals significant evidence of CCP interference using its unrestrained “united front” strategy.
The losses were also compounded by Tsai’s reform errors.
She failed to include experienced DPP members in the government and failed to pardon former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who was an obvious victim of political persecution and prison abuse.
Instead, she appointed many individuals with KMT affiliations. Thus, important posts in the judicial system and at the National Taiwan University are still occupied by shady KMT members who take pride in Middle Kingdom chauvinism and promote Xi’s policies in Taiwan.
Tsai has even refused to normalize the name of Taiwan for next year’s Tokyo Olympics, instead retaining the Chinese Taipei flag to please Xi and the American Institute in Taiwan’s ambiguous “status quo” policy.
She is oblivious to Taiwan’s long suffering under Chinese oppression and the indignity of being an international orphan.
Consequently, Tsai’s presidency has lost its legitimacy. Many senior DPP members oppose her re-election, and some have even terminated their membership.
Many Taiwanese have lost faith in the survival of democracy.
To prevent being overrun by Xi’s communism, many DPP members and concerned citizens implored Lai to run in the DPP presidential primary. Lai has an impeccable public service record and is unwaveringly loyal to the party’s goal of democracy.
He reluctantly agreed to challenge Tsai, his former boss. Lai will easily defeat those CCP proxy candidates, who are eager to gain the support of Xi, using irrational mobs to create social disorder throughout Taiwan.
The DPP primary was deliberately delayed by Tsai camp, so that her popularity might improve with time, which will never happen because she has already breached the trust of loyal party members.
Most overseas Taiwanese support Lai.
The US government should also support him, letting Tsai use her talent for communication in a different capacity.
Before the free world becomes a victim of Xi’s communist autocracy, we ask the US Congress to go beyond the Taiwan Assurance Act and recognize Taiwan as an independent nation.
Taiwan was given to the KMT as a war trophy by the US at the end of World War II. It is time to return its sovereignty to Taiwanese and demonstrate that justice does exist. By doing so the US would deny Xi the pretext of invading Taiwan, which is at the most strategic center of the Indo-Pacific defense against communism.
We ask the US Congress and US President Donald Trump to use the Global Magnitsky Act to punish Xi, who must take responsibility for human rights violations in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang.
The free world does not deserve unending daily threats of war and violence, such as the Korean War, Vietnam War, destruction of Syria and Venezuela, to name just a few. The Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington records more than 100 million victims. Read The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower by Michael Pillsbury to gain insight into China’s insidious plans for the world.
Kenneth Young,
James Ann
Arizona and Florida
CCNAA renamed twice
The Coordination Council for North American Affairs (CCNAA), established in Washington by Taiwan’s government in 1979 as the counterpart of the American Institute in Taiwan, was in 1994 renamed the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO).
Surprisingly, after 25 years, when many people have forgotten the name CCNAA, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Saturday last week that the CCNAA was to be renamed the Taiwan Council for US Affairs (TCUSA).
President Tsai called the move a “breakthrough” in Taiwan-US relations. She is quite right because the organization’s owner, Taiwan, is identified for the first time in 40 years.
However, many Taiwanese, Americans and Taiwanese-Americans are confused and/or puzzled.
Is the Taiwan’s mission in the US now TECRO or TCUSA or both? It is just as confusing as the difference between Taiwan and the ROC.
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
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