The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Sept. 4 held a televised debate between candidates for its chairperson election.
The four candidates for the vote, to be held on Saturday next week, represent a wasted opportunity for the KMT, which continues to be out of touch with public opinion on key issues, particularly on the nation’s sovereignty and the identity of Taiwanese.
During the debate, the four candidates emphasized relations with China, with former Changhua County commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) claiming that he would invite Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to visit Taiwan and hold a cross-strait political summit, assuming the party wins the presidency in 2024.
Chinese military threats toward Taiwan have over the past year increased to such a degree that they have become the focus of international policy discussions in Japan, the US, Australia and throughout western Europe.
The KMT could not have picked a worse time to propose friendliness toward China. If the party has the delusion that a majority of Taiwanese would welcome such a policy, it needs look no further than a Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation survey on June 24, which showed that public support for the KMT had declined to 18.4 percent, despite support for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) reaching a five-year low of 22.6 percent.
There are two possible reasons for the decline in KMT support: the party’s continued emphasis on the so-called “1992 consensus” and its opportunistic criticism of the DPP for criticism’s sake, even when facts negate its claims.
For example, when Medigen Vaccine Biologics Co’s domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine was given emergency use authorization, the KMT claimed that the government was using the public as “guinea pigs” to test an “unsafe” vaccine that had only completed phase 2 clinical trials.
However, according to WHO standards, the safety of a vaccine is determined during phase 2 trials, while its efficacy is determined during phase 3 trials.
The KMT has also made dubious claims about the levels of residue of the feed additive ractopamine in meat products imported from the US, despite the Ministry of Health and Welfare having imposed limits.
However, by far the biggest issue of contention is the KMT’s insistence on Taiwanese being “Chinese” and that Taiwan must remain friendly toward the Chinese Communist Party.
During the debate, Sun Yat-sen School president Chang Ya-chung (張亞中), another candidate, said that if elected, he would seek a peace treaty with Beijing, should the KMT win the presidency.
Such a promise smacks of the delusional assumption that China sees Taiwan as an equal belligerent in an ongoing war, which could not be further from the truth. Beijing sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that it threatens to forcibly annex. A “peace treaty” could only mean Taiwan’s capitulation.
This is the KMT’s core problem — its fundamental inability to detach itself from China, despite majority public opinion. In a survey conducted by the Taiwan Thinktank on Dec. 11 last year, 84.9 percent of respondents identified as Taiwanese, and only 8.7 percent said they were Chinese. The KMT chairperson candidates might win over hardline supporters with their cross-strait rhetoric, but they will not appeal to the general public — which is what they must do to win in 2024.
If the KMT is to ever win the presidency or at least be a viable opposition party, it must rethink its views on China. It might not like the idea of renaming the nation “Taiwan,” but even if the Republic of China were again to be recognized by a majority of nations, it would not hold any more territory than what is currently administered from Taipei.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) challenges and ignores the international rules-based order by violating Taiwanese airspace using a high-flying drone: This incident is a multi-layered challenge, including a lawfare challenge against the First Island Chain, the US, and the world. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) defines lawfare as “controlling the enemy through the law or using the law to constrain the enemy.” Chen Yu-cheng (陳育正), an associate professor at the Graduate Institute of China Military Affairs Studies, at Taiwan’s Fu Hsing Kang College (National Defense University), argues the PLA uses lawfare to create a precedent and a new de facto legal
Chile has elected a new government that has the opportunity to take a fresh look at some key aspects of foreign economic policy, mainly a greater focus on Asia, including Taiwan. Still, in the great scheme of things, Chile is a small nation in Latin America, compared with giants such as Brazil and Mexico, or other major markets such as Colombia and Argentina. So why should Taiwan pay much attention to the new administration? Because the victory of Chilean president-elect Jose Antonio Kast, a right-of-center politician, can be seen as confirming that the continent is undergoing one of its periodic political shifts,
On Sunday, elite free solo climber Alex Honnold — famous worldwide for scaling sheer rock faces without ropes — climbed Taipei 101, once the world’s tallest building and still the most recognizable symbol of Taiwan’s modern identity. Widespread media coverage not only promoted Taiwan, but also saw the Republic of China (ROC) flag fluttering beside the building, breaking through China’s political constraints on Taiwan. That visual impact did not happen by accident. Credit belongs to Taipei 101 chairwoman Janet Chia (賈永婕), who reportedly took the extra step of replacing surrounding flags with the ROC flag ahead of the climb. Just
Taiwan’s long-term care system has fallen into a structural paradox. Staffing shortages have led to a situation in which almost 20 percent of the about 110,000 beds in the care system are vacant, but new patient admissions remain closed. Although the government’s “Long-term Care 3.0” program has increased subsidies and sought to integrate medical and elderly care systems, strict staff-to-patient ratios, a narrow labor pipeline and rising inflation-driven costs have left many small to medium-sized care centers struggling. With nearly 20,000 beds forced to remain empty as a consequence, the issue is not isolated management failures, but a far more
RSS