In a historically fascinating move, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Tuesday last week announced the launch of a citizens’ initiative to reform the Referendum Act (公民投票法), which had just been amended last year.
While earlier being the main force behind the so-called “birdcage“ referendum act introduced in 2003, which basically made it impossible to get valid referendum results, the KMT is now accusing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of turning it into an “iron cage” law with last year’s changes.
To solve the problem, the KMT wants to go back to the old order of combining elections and voting on issues on the same day. This would “return power to the people,” KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said.
The KMT is right in that the most recent reform of the act has been misguided, as decoupling referendums and elections without abolishing or lowering considerably the approval quorum of 25 percent of the electorate does not empower citizens after all, because it invites boycotts, which the KMT has often used in the past.
However, simply returning to the old arrangement would not empower people, but the big political parties, and keep issue-voting in the shadows of a traditionally confrontational and partisan electoral moment. Additionally, Taiwan has differentiated minimum voting age (20 for elections and 18 for referendums), which complicate the setup of an election — and led to highly criticized delays in the November 2018 local elections.
Taiwan has come further than most countries in Asia (and the world) when it comes to engaging citizens and having people in genuine charge of politics. It makes sense to keep elections on candidates and voting on issues separated, but at the same time the undemocratic — and by international expertise strongly discouraged — special approval quorum needs to be abolished or lowered to a minimum (eg, 25 percent turnout quorum or 10 percent approval quorum).
There is more that needs to be done: The law mandates a system of electronic signature gathering, but the authorities have made little effort to introduce it. Again here, the two big parties have a natural advantage.
Finally, the Referendum Act needs to be updated and can be made even more accessible. What Taiwan lacks when it comes to modern participatory and direct democracy are not the nice principles of it, or even the main legislative procedures at hand, but a strong dose of less dramatic and confrontational practices.
As the KMT now wants to launch an initiative to change the Referendum Act, the truly democratic forces should react on their own initiative with some of the elements above. Taiwan’s vibrant democracy and the brave Taiwanese deserve a proper framework for making their voices heard — and should have one main voting day a year: 2021 — referendum voting; 2022 — local elections; 2023 — referendum voting; 2024 — national elections; 2025 — referendum voting.
Bruno Kaufmann is president of Initiative and Referendum Institute Europe in Stockholm, Sweden.
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) were born under the sign of Gemini. Geminis are known for their intelligence, creativity, adaptability and flexibility. It is unlikely, then, that the trade conflict between the US and China would escalate into a catastrophic collision. It is more probable that both sides would seek a way to de-escalate, paving the way for a Trump-Xi summit that allows the global economy some breathing room. Practically speaking, China and the US have vulnerabilities, and a prolonged trade war would be damaging for both. In the US, the electoral system means that public opinion
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
RSS