The plan for cooperation between the KMT and the PFP in the Kaohsiung mayoral election as devised by the two party chairmen, Lien Chan (
There was to have been an integration of the pan-blue ranks, carried out between the two parties. But in the end, the KMT's Huang Jun-ying (
The problem is that nobody in the two parties is willing to play the game. So how can the entire electorate of Kaohsiung be expected to play it? Even if it is just a matter of calling upon the "anti-green" KMT and PFP supporters to sacrifice one candidate and support another, the difficulty of the plan is greater than mere "integration." It is not a matter that the two party chairmen can mend easily.
There exists only one precedent for the pan-blue camp in this situation. That was in the 1998 election for the mayor of Taipei City. The New Party's Wang Chien-hsien (
So will we see the the same thing happen in Kaohsiung? In other words, among the three pan-blue candidates, is there anyone willing to lay down their own candidacy to promote another? Chang Po-ya publicly resigned from her post as a national policy advisor to make clear her determination to campaign to the bitter end. Obviously, she won't be backing down. As for Huang Jun-ying, with the full weight of the KMT behind him, he has been rising in the polls. Not even KMT Chairman Lien Chan would dare to sacrifice him for the sake of "integration." The only one left is Shih Ming-teh (
With no takers in sight, I fear that a sacrificial move is even more of a fairy tale than KMT-PFP integration.
Chin Heng-wei is editor-in-chief of Contemporary Monthly magazine.
Translated by Ethan Harkness
The cancelation this week of President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visit to Eswatini, after the Seychelles, Madagascar and Mauritius revoked overflight permits under Chinese pressure, is one more measure of Taiwan’s shrinking executive diplomatic space. Another channel that deserves attention keeps growing while the first contracts. For several years now, Taipei has been one of Europe’s busiest legislative destinations. Where presidents and foreign ministers cannot land, parliamentarians do — and they do it in rising numbers. The Italian parliament opened the year with its largest bipartisan delegation to Taiwan to date: six Italian deputies and one senator, drawn from six
When Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) sits down with US President Donald Trump in Beijing on Thursday next week, Xi is unlikely to demand a dramatic public betrayal of Taiwan. He does not need to. Beijing’s preferred victory is smaller, quieter and in some ways far more dangerous: a subtle shift in American wording that appears technical, but carries major strategic meaning. The ask is simple: replace the longstanding US formulation that Washington “does not support Taiwan independence” with a harder one — that Washington “opposes” Taiwan independence. One word changes; a deterrence structure built over decades begins to shift.
Recently, Taipei’s streets have been plagued by the bizarre sight of rats running rampant and the city government’s countermeasures have devolved into an anti-intellectual farce. The Taipei Parks and Street Lights Office has attempted to eradicate rats by filling their burrows with polyurethane foam, seeming to believe that rats could not simply dig another path out. Meanwhile, as the nation’s capital slowly deteriorates into a rat hive, the Taipei Department of Environmental Protection has proudly pointed to the increase in the number of poisoned rats reported in February and March as a sign of success. When confronted with public concerns over young
China has long given assurances that it would not interfere in free access to the global commons. As one Ministry of Defense spokesperson put it in 2024, “the Chinese side always respects the freedom of navigation and overflight entitled to countries under international law.” Although these reassurances have always been disingenuous, China’s recent actions display a blatant disregard for these principles. Countries that care about civilian air safety should take note. In April, President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) canceled a planned trip to Eswatini for the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s coronation and the 58th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic
RSS