When Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) raised Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential hopeful Hung Hsiu-chu’s (洪秀柱) hand and gave her his full support, saying three times — without stopping to examine his own behavior — that it was his “unshirkable duty” to do so, he set his place in history — as a useless politician.
When Hung used a cane to discipline students, got involved in physical fights in the legislative chamber and was caught on video shouting at people in public, she also bought herself a place in history — as a politician who prefers to use violence to ger her point across.
When a useless politician meets a violent one, it is analgous to a timid junior-high school student meeting a violent school dean: The student bows his head to authority, admits his faults and obediently writes vows promising to work harder on the blackboard.
Some people might say that it is not wise to underestimate Wang, who has a reputation as a wily and versatile politician.
This brings to mind Mao Zedong (毛澤東), who once swallowed insult and shouted: “Long live Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek” (蔣介石) — but in the end, it was Chiang who had to retreat and take “temporary refuge” in Taiwan.
However, such an analogy might be giving too much credit to Wang.
Wang describes himself as a member of the pan-blue camp, but a true Taiwanese at heart. If that were true, then that would be an insult to Taiwanese.
Taiwanese might not be as quick to take action as the violent Hung, but neither are they cowardly like former minister of health Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良), who, having failed to obtain the KMT’s endorsement, did not even dare pick up an application form to enter the party’s presidential primary.
There is no place for a Taiwanese mentality in the KMT, because it has yet to win the trust of older pro-unification members.
In the same way, the KMT’s mentality and secretive politics have yet to win the trust of Taiwan-centric, grassroots-oriented politicians.
The recent so-called “primary election mechanism” might be a more transparent form of selection that could force the KMT to reform, but Wang either chose — or was forced to — give up a shot at the nomination.
If Wang was forced to give up his presidential bid to protect the vested interests of his friends, because President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had managed to get hold of some information that he could use against the legislative speaker, he should just have kept his mouth shut and suffered in silence.
After all, he has been a foot soldier all his life, so why suddenly put on a show now?
However, if it was only Ma and his deep-blue allies that were sidelining Wang, then he should have stood up and fought, put his trust in the opinion polls and let the public decide.
That he did not dare take this approach and that he was dissatisfied with the situation only serves to highlight his incompetence.
The disgraced Wang is hanging on to his last strand of dignity as he refuses to fall into line under Ma’s whip.
However, after saying that he was duty-bound and would accept the party’s nomination if he were drafted by the party, only to see Ma’s own favorite, Hung, being anointed, while he was drafted to come out and call for unity behind Hung — even repeating three times that it is his unshirkable duty to do so, one wonders if the party’s pro-Taiwanese faction would ever dare look voters in the eye again.
James Wang is a media commentator.
Translated by Zane Kheir
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
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
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not