The real threat to the ROC
In 1994, when Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) ran for Taipei mayor, his slogan was: “Republic of China to Battle.”
In 2000, the presidential election resulted in the first transition of power. The deep blues were in mourning and thought that it was the end of the Republic of China (ROC).
However, even though Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won two consecutive elections, the ROC continues to exist.
DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) advocates maintaining the “status quo” under the ROC constitutional system and promises to keep peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. In other words, after she is elected, she will not allow those three words — Republic of China — to be extinguished.
Ironically, people within the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) continue to chime in with China’s point of view, advocating the idea that there is “one China, with both sides having the same interpretation” of what that China is, that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to “one China” and that there will be eventual unification with China, without seeming to realize that it would mean the end of the Republic of China. This is because the People’s Republic of China (PRC) replaced the ROC when it joined the UN in 1971 and it became the only government to legitimately represent China.
“One China” means the PRC and that would of course continue to be the nation’s name after unification.
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) has characterized the ongoing drama within the KMT of replacing the party’s presidential candidate, Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), as a matter of national salvation at a critical moment in time.
To borrow a phrase that Chen often used during his presidency: Is it really that important?
Transitions of power are the norm in a democracy.
Who asked the KMT to get involved in such fierce infighting?
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has led Taiwan into a mess, into a terrible condition.
The public wants change: If they cannot do their job properly, the public should change the people and the party in charge, and see if it helps.
Hsu Meng-pi
Taipei
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
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
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