Fifty years of KMT corruption was what drove Taiwan's voters to opt for a new government in last year's presidential election. However, after just 10 months in office, the DPP government appears to have acquired many of the KMT's bad habits -- without that party's skill at concealment. The KMT's shrewd masters of chicanery must be sniggering into their tea cups as they watch the DPP's clumsy dabbling in their art.
News that the government may replace Wang Chung-yu
Being a "fledgling" democracy, Taiwan scarcely has any experience in large-scale personnel reshuffles -- but this is something it will gradually get used to. The DPP has already appointed Lai Kuo-chou
The previous KMT government appointed Wang, who has served as China Steel chairman for five years. The company has performed fairly well under his leadership, but few would find fault with a proposal to replace him -- as long as the company's board agrees to it. As a political appointee, Wang cannot complain about being replaced after a transition of power. What the public needs to watch for is the professional qualifications of his replacement. Political affiliation should be a secondary concern. The same is true with the upcoming board elections at Chinese Petroleum
Apart from professionalism, another important principle is legality. Jerome Chen
Recently however, Chen sent letters to bank depositors, urging them -- in his capacity as bank chairman -- to support Charles Chiang (江昭儀), a member of the bank's board and an Executive Yuan official, in the upcoming DPP primary. Chen's letter has drawn severe criticism from the Legislative Yuan.
Chen's misuse of bank funds to curry the favor of a superior is incompatible with a banker's professionalism. Whether Chen has violated the law by using client information for political purposes remains to be investigated. But he cannot excuse himself by saying such a misstep will never happen again. Such abuse of power is exactly why voters dumped the KMT last year. Government reforms and a crackdown on "black gold" politics have always been the DPP's rallying points. How can the party answer to its supporters if it condones such behavior?
Apart from professional skills and party affiliation, the DPP should also test its candidates on their knowledge of law the next time the party plans a personnel reshuffle. That might help halt the DPP's transformation from a party renowned for its political and social activism into laughing stock and byword for political ineptness.
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
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