Recently the Chinese Nation-alist Party (KMT) proposed amendments to the Statute Governing the Reconstruction of Weathered Military Communities (
As with other public policies, this one involves social justice, the government's use of its political and financial resources and advantage versus marginalization. Of course there were possible issues with this amendment regarding the burden on the residents of the military communities, and the rights of the dispersed veteran families outside the communities. And it would be no surprise if the plan also involved the political and economic interests, as well as electoral considerations, of a minority of the legislators who raised the proposal.
The legislature is a place where people advocating different interests and viewpoints can engage in transparent debate. But the current manipulation by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is an example of the worst kind of public political discussion. It has taken the complex questions over the costs, benefits and overall fairness of the project and dumbed them down into an unfair struggle for resources between the weak Taiwanese and the advantaged Mainlander minority. This is a perfect example of how politics can divide Taiwanese society.
The DPP has always claimed it represents the progressiveness of Taiwan's diverse society and culture. Yet on the other hand, it encourages a minority of people to use the subject of Mainlander interests to twist Taiwan's political advancement.
Veteran families both inside and outside the veteran communities have never been purely made up of Mainlanders. The great majority are of mixed ethnicity. Not only did the first generation intermarry, but also the second, third and so on.
The Association of Mainlander Taiwanese is an organization which promotes the cultural preservation of veteran communities. We worry that after they are all torn down in 2009, one of Taiwan's most important cultural features will be lost overnight. That is why last year we pressed for a non-partisan amendment to incorporate cultural preservation into the statute, so that reconstruction efforts would also work to preserve cultural and architectural artifacts, and give counties and cities another opportunity to participate.
This year we also want to earn a NT$10 million budget in the hope of preserving Taiwan's diverse culture, the aesthetic beauty of the communities and to create a community atmosphere in which coexistence is respected.
Today, people working to preserve the culture of the veteran communities feel as if they've been unfairly drawn into a conflict which is not of their making. We sincerely call on the ruling and opposition parties, the MOD and all members of society to look more broadly at the facts.
Stop using ethnic smears as an argument, and instead communicate by discussing the matters at hand. Acknowledge the diversity of the veteran communities. Seek to promote ordinary citizens and a spatial and cultural transformation by building communities. Create the possibility of a new form of diverse Taiwanese culture.
Chang Mao-kuei is a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology at Academia Sinica and president of the Association of Mainlander Taiwanese. Translated by Marc Langer
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
RSS