China is “intensely worried” about the possibility of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) returning to power, a Washington conference was told on Tuesday.
Beijing does not have “a real good idea” how to handle such a development, said Shelley Rigger, a Taiwan specialist and chair of the political science department at Davidson College in North Carolina.
Rigger said that if the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) suffered important losses in Taiwan’s nine-in-one elections on Saturday next week, there could be “chaos” unleashed within the party ranks.
Addressing the Brookings Institute conference on the upcoming elections, Rigger said that major KMT losses could lead to pressure on President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to “step aside and let other people make the decisions.”
The “real excitement” would start the day after the elections as the impact from the results is felt, Rigger said.
The 2016 presidential and legislative elections would be “keenly observed” by China, she added.
Brookings Institution visiting fellow Huang Min-hua (黃旻華) said voters might still have doubts about DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) because she had not expressed clear views on cross-strait relations or definitive opinions on how to solve trade issues.
University of Canterbury political science professor Alexander Tan (陳永福) said there was little excitement at this stage over the elections although the Sunflower movement had resulted in a political awakening among young voters.
“It’s tempting to look on this election as a referendum on Ma’s performance, but it’s really not about national policy issues; this really is a local election,” Rigger said.
She said that Taiwan would not vote for the DPP as a way of showing resentment against Ma.
“He is not on the ballot and very few people who are close to Ma are on the ballot,” Rigger said.
The Sunflower movement had been a referendum on Ma’s presidency, she said, adding that the movement had resulted in an “astonishing display” of political restraint from the Ma regime.
It was hard to imagine any other country in which the legislative chamber could be taken over by demonstrators for a month and where the resolution would involve minimal repercussions for the demonstrators, but very significant repercussions for the leadership, she said.
Rigger said the Sunflower movement had sent a message of dissatisfaction with “politics as usual” and that changes had to be made.
However, the leaders of the movement were deeply skeptical of both political parties, she said.
Brookings Center for East Asia Policy Studies director Richard Bush, acting as conference moderator, said that China had begun to “lay some boundaries or lines” pointing to what it regarded as acceptable in politics and policies from ruling parties in Taiwan.
He also expressed sorrow at the death earlier this week of former American Institute in Taiwan chairman Nat Bellocchi.
Bush said Bellocchi was a “source of wise counsel” and that he would be greatly missed.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
RSS