Will the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) replace the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) as Taiwan’s second-largest political party? The issue has attracted much attention.
Let us begin with a news story. Chu Che-cheng (朱哲成), a TPP legislative candidate in 2019, announced his withdrawal from the party late last month, saying that it is full of aging politicians from the pan-blue camp, “second-generation politicians” and members of former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) clan.
“Where have all the pro-local members gone?” he asked.
That Chu left the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for the TPP just to leave it again provides an insight into the transformation of TPP Chairman and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
After Ko appointed Han supporter Hsieh Li-kung (謝立功) as TPP secretary-general, people began to suspect that Ko’s strategy was to ride the “Han wave.” Later, this suspicion was confirmed with the recruitment of Han supporter Huang Wen-tsai (黃文財) as director of media at TPP headquarters.
The party said that Huang was recruited because of his experience working with the media, but his employment adds weight to Chu’s accusation that the TPP is filled with old, pan-blue politicians and the Han clan.
Ko has also repeatedly expressed goodwill toward the KMT.
Not long ago, Ko visited KMT Institute of Revolutionary Practice director Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) while he was staging a protest on Taipei’s Ketagalan Boulevard. Not only did Ko present Lo with a pair of blue-and-white flip-flops to symbolize the cooperation between the pan-blue and white camps, but he also appeared on Lo’s live Internet program.
During the administration of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Lo served as deputy secretary-general of the Presidential Office. By presenting Lo with flip-flops, Ko was clearly trying to curry favor with pan-blue camp supporters, and hint that the KMT and TPP are “brothers in arms.”
During six years of partnership and cooperation, Ko was elected Taipei mayor in 2014 with the help of the DPP.
However, soon after he was re-elected in 2018, the two sides turned from friends into foes. As Ko is no longer able to attract more votes from the pan-green camp, he must find another means of garnering support.
When the KMT quickly lost momentum after the Han wave faded away, Ko seized the chance to capture its votes.
If the TPP wants to keep growing, it needs to swallow the KMT bit by bit, and currying favor with Han supporters seems to be the quickest way.
Opinion polls conducted by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation show that the KMT and TPP are competing with each other for second spot in public support, and the TPP makes a better impression on voters than the KMT.
Founded in 2019, the TPP is still young and fresh compared with the century-old KMT. While the former is likely to grow, the latter is in free fall.
Will the TPP swallow the KMT? The possibility cannot be ruled out.
Intriguingly, ahead of a referendum later this month — for which the KMT urges “yes” votes on all four questions — the TPP reportedly invited its members to cast a straw poll, and the majority of them also supported “yes” votes on the items, which forced the party leadership to conduct a U-turn.
Some media commentators believe this shows that the TPP is turning “blue.”
Awash with Han staffers and former KMT members, the TPP appears to be a modern version of the Trojan Horse in ancient Greek mythology.
Chin Heng-wei is a political commentator.
Translated by Eddy Chang
Chinese actor Alan Yu (于朦朧) died after allegedly falling from a building in Beijing on Sept. 11. The actor’s mysterious death was tightly censored on Chinese social media, with discussions and doubts about the incident quickly erased. Even Hong Kong artist Daniel Chan’s (陳曉東) post questioning the truth about the case was automatically deleted, sparking concern among overseas Chinese-speaking communities about the dark culture and severe censorship in China’s entertainment industry. Yu had been under house arrest for days, and forced to drink with the rich and powerful before he died, reports said. He lost his life in this vicious
A recent trio of opinion articles in this newspaper reflects the growing anxiety surrounding Washington’s reported request for Taiwan to shift up to 50 percent of its semiconductor production abroad — a process likely to take 10 years, even under the most serious and coordinated effort. Simon H. Tang (湯先鈍) issued a sharp warning (“US trade threatens silicon shield,” Oct. 4, page 8), calling the move a threat to Taiwan’s “silicon shield,” which he argues deters aggression by making Taiwan indispensable. On the same day, Hsiao Hsi-huei (蕭錫惠) (“Responding to US semiconductor policy shift,” Oct. 4, page 8) focused on
In South Korea, the medical cosmetic industry is fiercely competitive and prices are low, attracting beauty enthusiasts from Taiwan. However, basic medical risks are often overlooked. While sharing a meal with friends recently, I heard one mention that his daughter would be going to South Korea for a cosmetic skincare procedure. I felt a twinge of unease at the time, but seeing as it was just a casual conversation among friends, I simply reminded him to prioritize safety. I never thought that, not long after, I would actually encounter a patient in my clinic with a similar situation. She had
George Santayana wrote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This article will help readers avoid repeating mistakes by examining four examples from the civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forces and the Republic of China (ROC) forces that involved two city sieges and two island invasions. The city sieges compared are Changchun (May to October 1948) and Beiping (November 1948 to January 1949, renamed Beijing after its capture), and attempts to invade Kinmen (October 1949) and Hainan (April 1950). Comparing and contrasting these examples, we can learn how Taiwan may prevent a war with
RSS