Nine years ago one of this newspaper's editorial board members was fired from a paper for committing the heresy -- according to the newspaper's Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) old-guard owner -- of suggesting that the KMT was intellectually bankrupt and was overcoming this by first denouncing then adopting the policies of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). As the editorial pointed out, anybody who had been following the fortunes of various reform proposals -- abolition of the Temporary Provisions, the re-election of the National Assembly and the legislature, the end of the black list and direct presidential elections -- could see a clear pattern where the DPP would start a campaign, the KMT would thunderously denounce it, then about two years later it would push through the proposal itself and reap kudos for its liberalizing vision.
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. On Saturday the KMT, with much fanfare, came up with its vision for constitutional change after, we assume, a debate over just how much of the DPP's program it could adopt without incurring derision. Of the 10 major elements to the plan announced by Lien Chan (
It is interesting to note just how many of these policies the KMT has until very recently opposed. It has thundered against referendums like an evangelist against sin; it has tried to use the "semi-presidential" system to manipulate power in the legislature into a grasp on the reins of government; it showed no interest in changing the voting system when it had the power to do so nor in lowering the voting age, largely because the current system benefits the KMT's corrupt money politics and the party has always believed that young people are fodder for the green camp.
But just because we have heard these ideas before, elsewhere, doesn't mean that nothing happened on Saturday. But what? That depends how charitable you want to be. We could deride the KMT as being intellectually vacuous. And we could sneer at the party's idea of rolling policy unveilings to put some oomph into its campaign. If the KMT is just going to copy the DPP, then why bother with what it has to say? But let us instead be a little charitable. For what Saturday really told us is that the KMT is beginning to realize that, to win power, it cannot rely on the contemptible canaille who thrill to the memory of Chiang Ching-kuo (
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
RSS