Hoping to address concerns about the direction he is to take the party, newly elected Democratic Progressive Party Chairman William Lai (賴清德), the self-described “political worker for Taiwanese independence,” officially set out his views on the matter.
For Lai, Taiwan is already a sovereign, independent nation, so there is no need to declare independence. Furthermore, the core issue of cross-strait problems derives from the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military intimidation of Taiwan.
That Taiwan and the Republic of China (ROC) are inseparable is a pragmatic advocacy of Taiwanese independence that still recognizes the “status quo.” Given the CCP regime’s inherent unreliability and its ambitions to infiltrate the entire world, democratic countries have begun to reach out to Taiwan to establish friendly relations.
The ROC does not have diplomatic relations with most countries, but there is mutual support economically and in national defense. The international community has not abandoned Taiwan, and the countries supporting it are becoming more open and forceful in that regard.
The US does not support Taiwanese independence per se, but recognizes its sovereignty. Taiwan is a democratic nation with US backing and presents the most legitimate push-back to the CCP regime.
The ROC came to Taiwan with US approval, and this support allowed Taiwan to resist annexation by the CCP.
Lai has not abandoned a commitment to Taiwanese independence, and it is not right for commentators to accuse him of doing so. They should recognize that the idea of Taiwanese independence has been intentionally stigmatized by the CCP and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and acknowledge that Taiwan has been independent for a long time.
In this way, the CCP cannot claim that it can legitimately annex Taiwan through force.
Chen Chi-nung is principal of Shuili Junior-High School in Nantou County.
Translated by Paul Cooper
Taiwan stands at the epicenter of a seismic shift that will determine the Indo-Pacific’s future security architecture. Whether deterrence prevails or collapses will reverberate far beyond the Taiwan Strait, fundamentally reshaping global power dynamics. The stakes could not be higher. Today, Taipei confronts an unprecedented convergence of threats from an increasingly muscular China that has intensified its multidimensional pressure campaign. Beijing’s strategy is comprehensive: military intimidation, diplomatic isolation, economic coercion, and sophisticated influence operations designed to fracture Taiwan’s democratic society from within. This challenge is magnified by Taiwan’s internal political divisions, which extend to fundamental questions about the island’s identity and future
The narrative surrounding Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attendance at last week’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit — where he held hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin and chatted amiably with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — was widely framed as a signal of Modi distancing himself from the US and edging closer to regional autocrats. It was depicted as Modi reacting to the levying of high US tariffs, burying the hatchet over border disputes with China, and heralding less engagement with the Quadrilateral Security dialogue (Quad) composed of the US, India, Japan and Australia. With Modi in China for the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has postponed its chairperson candidate registration for two weeks, and so far, nine people have announced their intention to run for chairperson, the most on record, with more expected to announce their campaign in the final days. On the evening of Aug. 23, shortly after seven KMT lawmakers survived recall votes, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) announced he would step down and urged Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) to step in and lead the party back to power. Lu immediately ruled herself out the following day, leaving the subject in question. In the days that followed, several
The Jamestown Foundation last week published an article exposing Beijing’s oil rigs and other potential dual-use platforms in waters near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙島). China’s activities there resembled what they did in the East China Sea, inside the exclusive economic zones of Japan and South Korea, as well as with other South China Sea claimants. However, the most surprising element of the report was that the authors’ government contacts and Jamestown’s own evinced little awareness of China’s activities. That Beijing’s testing of Taiwanese (and its allies) situational awareness seemingly went unnoticed strongly suggests the need for more intelligence. Taiwan’s naval
RSS