Four years ago, when Chen Shui-bian (
Today, the DPP, the current ruling party, is going all out to fight the KMT's incumbent, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is seeking re-election.
From the president, the vice president and premier, to all party legislators and party cadres, everyone is coming out and taking turns attacking Ma over issues such as national identity, building a domed stadium, relocating Sungshan Airport, and whether Ma plans to run for president in 2004.
The result is that Ma's support ratings remain high in public opinion polls. The attackers have even unwittingly helped to raise Ma's campaign momentum, turning the mayoral race into almost a presidential race or a showdown between Chen and Ma.
The prospects of Lee Ying-yuan (李應元), the DPP's mayoral candidate, appear increasingly less promising.
According to media reports, the DPP seems to have realized the situation and the need to change its strategies quickly. In the next two weeks, the party plans to have Chen take a back seat and bring the focus of the lection back to city administration issues.
When it comes to Ma's political weak points, a mayoral election and a presidential election call for attacks on different levels.
In a mayoral race, his character, ability and performance should be the focus. Only in a presidential race should his political loyalty be questioned.
Today, the DPP is using presidential campaign methods to tackle Ma in a mayoral election. This turns him into a powerful enemy of Chen. When that happens, how will the lesser known Lee be expected to fight against Ma? The campaign will look like a showdown between "Mayor Lee" and "President Ma."
The DPP should readjust its focus and return to a comparison of Lee's and Ma's characters, abilities, achievements and vision in respect to the city's development.
Only when the DPP does so will it have any chance of salvaging Lee's opinion-poll ratings and his campaign momentum, neither of which seem to have seen any improvement.
Chen Sung-shan is a member of the Civil Service Protection and Training Commission at the Examination Yuan.
Translated by Francis Huang
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
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
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
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS