The future is up to the people
The March 20 election is, unbeknownst to most, an intriguing dilemma: whose election would most benefit the continuing democratization of Taiwan: the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ticket or the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)?
Democratization theory generally refers to distinct phases: transition and consolidation. While transition culminated in the election of President Chen Shui-bian (
Consolidation of the political process is generally agreed to occur with the consolidation election -- a moment when the incumbent peacefully accepts electoral defeat, thereby further entrenching electoral rules.
This is particularly interesting in Taiwan as the consolidation election would require the replacement of a group of democrats with the remnants of the previous authoritarian regime. This results in the following problem: what would be better for Taiwanese demo-cracy? The re-election of the democratic incumbent and delaying the moment of electoral consolidation or the empowering of a group with admitted authoritarian preferences?
Thankfully, no academics or self-styled experts need to make this decision. It is the Taiwanese people who are burdened with the critical task of determining their country's future.
Benjamin Adams
New Zealand
Rally turns 228 around
With 2 million people forming a human chain to protest China's missile threat, Taiwanese turned a historically sad day -- the anniversary of the 228 Incident -- into a proud day in style. Those innocent lives lost under the brutal oppression of the KMT were not in vain after all.
An atrocity like the 228 Incident is only possible when people are ruled by a dictatorship. Last Saturday, Taiwanese stood up and said no to a dictatorial regime, just like in 1947. However, this time, they did not need to hide or run away for fear of being harmed. This time, with confidence and courage, they acted magnificently.
During the rally, they shouted slogans like "loving peace and democracy," "yes, Taiwan" and "no missiles."
This was a message that nobody should take lightly. Might does not make right. Even a superpower like the US realized this in Iraq.
Ironically, the human-chain event would have been welcomed in those good old days when Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) was in power. The pan-blues are now describing these democratic actions, as well as the coming referendum, as provocative to China and labelling the human chain an ethnic manipulation to gain an electoral advantage.
This year Feb. 28 was a very special day for all Taiwanese. Their compatriots died 57 years ago without the protection of freedom and democracy, and now we were defending them on this memorable day.
Yang Ji-charng
United States
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.
Taipei is facing a severe rat infestation, and the city government is reportedly considering large-scale use of rodenticides as its primary control measure. However, this move could trigger an ecological disaster, including mass deaths of birds of prey. In the past, black kites, relatives of eagles, took more than three decades to return to the skies above the Taipei Basin. Taiwan’s black kite population was nearly wiped out by the combined effects of habitat destruction, pesticides and rodenticides. By 1992, fewer than 200 black kites remained on the island. Fortunately, thanks to more than 30 years of collective effort to preserve their remaining
After Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing, most headlines referred to her as the leader of the opposition in Taiwan. Is she really, though? Being the chairwoman of the KMT does not automatically translate into being the leader of the opposition in the sense that most foreign readers would understand it. “Leader of the opposition” is a very British term. It applies to the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy, and to some extent, to other democracies. If you look at the UK right now, Conservative Party head Kemi Badenoch is
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