Realizing its prospects were poor, the PFP has withdrawn en masse from Saturday's mayoral and county elections to cut its losses by stepping aside with humility. Their withdrawal has led to a rare closing of the pan-blue ranks. But in the legislative elections, the closer we get to polling day, the less the KMT and PFP are able to restrain their snail-like tongues. The division between them is growing wider and wider.
Snails have tongues in the shape of a crescent moon, and their teeth grow on their tongues like the teeth on a file. When a snail wants to fill his belly, his method is to "scrape and eat."
The PFP's attempts to eat up the KMT have been just like those of a snail. They scrape and eat. PFP Vice Chairman Chang Chao-hsiung (
Of course, the KMT also has ways of scraping and eating the PFP. KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
Lien didn't utter a single harsh word, but his comment was far more vicious than Chang's, for asking the PFP to dissolve itself and return to the fold is surely no different from saying the PFP is worth even less than a rotten apple. At least a rotten apple leads an independent existence.
The KMT is one family under three different roofs. Each of the three brothers looks down on and refuses to submit to the other two. So every time they lift their heads to discuss measures for cooperation, after lowering their heads again, they can't help wondering who will be king of the mountain.
The New Party hates being seen as small and insignificant. Their new print advertisements boast that they are the shrewdest of the parties. The New Party also views itself as having the most orthodox KMT origins. The PFP considers itself the most competent. From the television advertisements of Viola Chen (
The KMT's delusion is more grandiose. It has suddenly discovered, after prolonged self-reflection, that it has all the outstanding characteristics of both the PFP and the New Party. Furthermore, the family estate and the title to the land remain within their grasp and the ancestral tablets are arranged in their halls for them to worship day and night.
No matter how they look at it, they are the eldest brother, and the PFP and New Party should return to the KMT. Thus Lien has spoken of "opening the front door" and of people "being welcome to return home."
The KMT remains the keeper of that front door. But if the PFP and New Party step over the threshold, they will still be the second and third brothers. How could the PFP and New Party justify such roles in their own minds? Why did they bother to fight their way out of the house in the first place?
After Lien and Soong were defeated in the last presidential election, both of them began to recall the dream of the old KMT. They wanted to join hands and cooperate to become an eternal ruling party.
This election is their first test. If this dream can be likened to climbing a ten-story pole, then they remain on the ground, looking up wistfully at the top of the pole.
After the election, the PFP will certainly have a few more seats in the legislature, while the KMT will have somewhat fewer seats, but still more than the PFP. The gap between the two parties will shrink.
As a result, the difficulty of getting one side to bow its head and submit to the role of little brother will only increase. The next test will come in two and a half years (at the next presidential election), perhaps with Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Chen Ro-jinn is a freelance writer.
Translated by Ethan Harkness
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not