The coalition government led by conservative Australian Prime Minister John Howard suffered defeat in the election on Nov. 25. Labor party leader Kevin Rudd secured victory, calling on election eve for policy on climate change to be a priority.
Taiwan's political strategy remains tied to the issue of national identity and sovereignty.
If the public throws enough votes behind an environmentally oriented party for it to secure a legislator-at-large seat in the elections next month, it would be a catalyst to force the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to focus more on environmental issues.
Australia's per capita carbon-dioxide emissions rank second in the world. Mining, meat farming and transportation are all major culprits.
Australians don't need former US vice president Al Gore to tell them global warming is real -- they have experienced the effects of climate change through a series of damaging droughts.
While in power, Howard followed the US' lead, enthusiastically supporting the invasion of Iraq, refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, taking a non-committal stance at APEC and promoting nuclear power to the international community as a means of reducing the greenhouse effect. Rudd rose to power by opposing the deployment of Australian troops to Iraq. He advocates the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, which would give his country negotiation rights at the post-Kyoto summit in Bali next month. All are measures promoted by Australia's third-largest political force, the Greens.
The Green Party proposes a stop to new coal mines, canceling subsidies to the mining industry, stopping uranium extraction and exportation, carbon taxes and sustainable energy.
Taiwan produces 1 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. Its per capita emissions are behind only Australia and the US and are drawing international concern. The DPP, however, claims Taiwan doesn't need to ratify the Kyoto Protocol because we are not a UN member. The DPP's bid for UN membership suddenly flies out the window.
When the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, the EU, Japan and other countries may begin to impose import taxes on goods produced in high carbon-emitting countries. Taiwanese industries will relocate and the economy will collapse.
Even more unbelievably, Environmental Protection Administration Minister Winston Dang (陳重信) actually opposed setting a schedule for emission reductions in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act, which has passed its first reading in the legislature.
Yet, during a visit from Mohan Munasinghe, vice chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dang boasted that the Act is a first among developing nations.
We used to be proud of the nation's economic prosperity -- now we are worried about looming ecological disaster.
DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (
If Taiwan Plastic Corp, whose industrial activity accounts for over one-quarter of the nation's emissions, gains permission to build another steel plant, it will soon be responsible for one-third of carbon dioxide output.
When the UN holds its annual summit on climate change in Bali on Saturday, various environmental groups will protest at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and in Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin and Kaohsiung. The public is making its concerns clear. How can politicians ignore that?
Pan Han-shen is Taiwan Green Party's secretary-general and a part-time lecturer at Aletheia University.
Translated by Angela Hong
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