Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) victory in the Jan. 16 presidential election was retaliation by the middle class against the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government for its economic failure, a major South Korean newspaper said on Saturday.
The Dong-A Ilbo said that Tsai would gain strong support in the 113-seat Legislative Yuan, where the DPP won 68 seats, citing the views of four Taiwanese analysts: Korean Culture Association chairman Rick Chu (朱立熙), National Chengchi University professor Hung Yao-nan (洪耀南), Thinking Taiwan Foundation Forum chief editor Cheryl Lai (賴秀如) and Taiwan Thinktank deputy executive director Lai I-chung (賴怡忠). (Chu and Cheryl Lai used to work for the Taipei Times.)
Chu told the Dong-A Ilbo that the election results were an indictment of the KMT because in the eight years that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been in power, Taiwan has become overdependent on China.
As a result, China’s economic slowdown has affected Taiwan, he said, adding that only a few Taiwanese businesses that have worked with Chinese officials have profited from closer cross-strait relations.
Hung said the wealth gap in Taiwan had widened significantly between 2007 and 2013.
Taiwan’s top 5 percent income earners were making 66 times those in the lowest 5 percent in 2007, but by 2013, the gap had widened to a factor of 99, and the results of the presidential election were a form of retaliation by the middle class against that situation, he said.
Cheryl Lai said younger voters supported the DPP because there has been no increase in job opportunities in recent years.
Taiwan’s economic growth in 2014 was 3 percent, but salaries were cut and job opportunities became scarcer, so young people feel they cannot afford to get married or buy a home, a situation that has reached a level of desperation, she said.
Lai I-chung also looked at the effects of the young vote, saying that all of the students who led a massive protest in 2014 against a trade in services agreement with China were born after the democratization of Taiwan.
For the Sunflower generation, Taiwan’s independence is natural, so it is natural for them to support the independence-leaning DPP, Lai I-chung said.
Chu said that 1.29 million of Taiwan’s electorate of 18.81 million were first-time voters, who are likely to be predisposed toward independence.
Asked about the possibility of a meeting between Tsai and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), Cheryl Lai said that such an encounter was unlikely any time soon because China insists on the so-called “1992 consensus” as the basis of cross-strait relations, while Tsai does not recognize the existence of such a consensus.
The “1992 consensus” refers to a supposed understanding reached during the cross-strait talks in 1992 that both Taiwan and China acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what that means.
Former KMT legislator Su Chi (蘇起) said in 2006 that he had made up the term in 2000, when he was head of the Mainland Affairs Council, before the KMT handed power to the DPP.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition