A new year doesn't really begin until Chinese New Year has passed. Now that the new year is here, people are hoping that with the new spring, all the gloom will be completely swept away, replaced by a breath of fresh air.
But will everything change for the better now that the Chinese New Year is over? I'm afraid that's something nobody can guarantee. Taiwan in 2001 will be even more politically charged, even more turbulent. The ruling handed down by the Grand Justices regarding the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant
Taiwan's instability is on the rise. The main reason for this is because we've already become something rarely seen in the world -- a "politicized society." No one listens to reason, everything is based on which way the winds of politics are blowing. And when the wind's direction is uncertain, everyone goes and plays hypocritical, ambiguous, evasive -- and clever -- word games.
And in these games, one could say that our Grand Justices are outstanding players. They didn't state that the nuclear plant was "unconstitutional" or "constitutional," but rather slipped by with the wording "procedural flaws." During the recent US presidential election controversy, on a question unable to be resolved by political means, US Supreme Court judges made a resolute decision that transcended political parties. Our Grand Justices, however, took everything back to the beginning, continuing to allow the political parties to wrestle each other over the issue.
Thus, once the new year has begun, I'm afraid that conflicts regarding the power plant issue will continue to erupt. Will it be resolved? The answer probably is "impossible." The issue will continue to drag on, remaining unanswered until after the legislative elections.
Everything in Taiwan must follow political power. The Constitution, law, values, right and wrong -- all are mere footnotes to political power. Unless the DPP can become the majority political power in the upcoming elections, it will be impossible to end the chaos.
Thus, after the new year, Taiwan will inevitably become even more political. Some parties are planning to become the new "majority," while some want to break up this "majority." In other countries, democracy has democratic substance, but in Taiwan, democracy is merely the process of struggle between new and old "majorities." As a real majority is unlikely to appear, our chaos cannot but continue. As to what will become of Taiwan if a real majority does appear -- that's an even greater mystery.
We can look forward to a very politicized year. Before the year-end legislative elections, in the prevailing chaos, the "spitting wars"
Or maybe this is just the fate of a politicized society. When everything in a society is decided by political power and few believe that anything -- such as history, values, or a universal sense of right and wrong -- has any significance, that society will be perpetually unable to resolve problems such as rudeness, unreasonable behavior and "spitting wars." Compared to these problems, so-called economic, stock market and social issues are just the tip of the iceberg.
A politicized society, a politicized 2001 -- maybe there will be a day when people will finally discover that politics is the source of our misery.
Nan Fang Shuo is the publisher of The Journalist magazine.
Translated by Scudder Smith
Most Hong Kongers ignored the elections for its Legislative Council (LegCo) in 2021 and did so once again on Sunday. Unlike in 2021, moderate democrats who pledged their allegiance to Beijing were absent from the ballots this year. The electoral system overhaul is apparent revenge by Beijing for the democracy movement. On Sunday, the Hong Kong “patriots-only” election of the LegCo had a record-low turnout in the five geographical constituencies, with only 1.3 million people casting their ballots on the only seats that most Hong Kongers are eligible to vote for. Blank and invalid votes were up 50 percent from the previous
President William Lai (賴清德) attended a dinner held by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) when representatives from the group visited Taiwan in October. In a speech at the event, Lai highlighted similarities in the geopolitical challenges faced by Israel and Taiwan, saying that the two countries “stand on the front line against authoritarianism.” Lai noted how Taiwan had “immediately condemned” the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas and had provided humanitarian aid. Lai was heavily criticized from some quarters for standing with AIPAC and Israel. On Nov. 4, the Taipei Times published an opinion article (“Speak out on the
More than a week after Hondurans voted, the country still does not know who will be its next president. The Honduran National Electoral Council has not declared a winner, and the transmission of results has experienced repeated malfunctions that interrupted updates for almost 24 hours at times. The delay has become the second-longest post-electoral silence since the election of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez of the National Party in 2017, which was tainted by accusations of fraud. Once again, this has raised concerns among observers, civil society groups and the international community. The preliminary results remain close, but both
Beijing’s diplomatic tightening with Jakarta is not an isolated episode; it is a piece of a long-term strategy that realigns the prices of choices across the Indo-Pacific. The principle is simple. There is no need to impose an alliance if one can make a given trajectory convenient and the alternative costly. By tying Indonesia’s modernization to capital, technology and logistics corridors, and by obtaining in public the reaffirmation of the “one China” principle, Beijing builds a constraint that can be activated tomorrow on sensitive issues. The most sensitive is Taiwan. If we look at systemic constraints, the question is not whether
RSS