At the end of last month, I was invited by the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association to attend a forum in Japan and give a keynote speech on the Jan. 13 presidential election.
The global community is concerned about Taiwan’s future, yet according to my observation overseas, the people least concerned are Taiwanese.
This does not mean that Taiwanese are indifferent to politics. Compared with Japanese, Taiwanese are political enthusiasts. However, those involved usually do not know what they are doing, and Taiwanese do not know the significance of the ballot in their hands. The election results could change the world.
Taiwan’s public might feel that foreigners have no right and no place to meddle in local politics. After all, people are most concerned about the economy and putting food on the table. What has Taiwan’s future or politics got to do with the Japanese?
However, Taiwanese politics is no longer a domestic affair. It is a global one. In August, the Japanese government sent former Japanese prime minister Taro Aso to Taiwan to inquire about the political vision of Vice President Willam Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential candidate, and the direction Lai has in store for the nation. Before that, Aso also met with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘). Aso’s move confirmed that the Japanese government was approaching all potential presidential candidates with the aim of getting first-hand information.
Despite what pro-China politicians and fake news have been saying, Japan has taken serious the stance of “if Taiwan has a problem, then Japan has a problem.” For Japan, it is more than just a political slogan — it is a hard reality. If China makes a move against Taiwan, the question of sending aid to Taiwan goes without saying for Japan, because China would be blocking Japan’s maritime transportation of oil supplies and other strategic goods, and undermining the defense of Japan’s southwestern waters if Tokyo chooses to maintain neutrality. Before a potential invasion, China is likely to first attack joint US military bases in Japan. As a result, Tokyo could be the one facing trouble even before Taipei does.
It is understandable why the global community would be so concerned about Taiwan’s elections. The elections could play a role in determining whether Beijing invades Taiwan. As opposed to the opposition parties’ narrative of “vote for the DPP and young people go to war,” the global community has the impression that a pro-China party would actually bring about a cross-strait war. The reason is fairly simple: Pro-China parties would lower the nation’s guard, thereby making things easy for China.
Aso told reporters that he felt assured after Lai demonstrated his resolve and determination to safeguard Taiwan. This means that Japan feels Taiwan can only keep China at bay with pro-Taiwan parties securing half of the legislative seats and Lai’s administration in office.
Taiwan’s future, of course, eventually rests in the hands of Taiwanese themselves. Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) once quoted French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s idea that “man is completely free and responsible for himself, but also responsible for all men.”
Taiwan’s public is responsible for casting a ballot that might change the world, and this is the very first step for Taiwanese holding the reins to the nation’s future.
Shogo Lim is a member of the Japan chapter of World United Formosans for Independence and a member of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party.
Translated by Rita Wang
Chinese agents often target Taiwanese officials who are motivated by financial gain rather than ideology, while people who are found guilty of spying face lenient punishments in Taiwan, a researcher said on Tuesday. While the law says that foreign agents can be sentenced to death, people who are convicted of spying for Beijing often serve less than nine months in prison because Taiwan does not formally recognize China as a foreign nation, Institute for National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said. Many officials and military personnel sell information to China believing it to be of little value, unaware that
Before 1945, the most widely spoken language in Taiwan was Tai-gi (also known as Taiwanese, Taiwanese Hokkien or Hoklo). However, due to almost a century of language repression policies, many Taiwanese believe that Tai-gi is at risk of disappearing. To understand this crisis, I interviewed academics and activists about Taiwan’s history of language repression, the major challenges of revitalizing Tai-gi and their policy recommendations. Although Taiwanese were pressured to speak Japanese when Taiwan became a Japanese colony in 1895, most managed to keep their heritage languages alive in their homes. However, starting in 1949, when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) enacted martial law
“Si ambulat loquitur tetrissitatque sicut anas, anas est” is, in customary international law, the three-part test of anatine ambulation, articulation and tetrissitation. And it is essential to Taiwan’s existence. Apocryphally, it can be traced as far back as Suetonius (蘇埃托尼烏斯) in late first-century Rome. Alas, Suetonius was only talking about ducks (anas). But this self-evident principle was codified as a four-part test at the Montevideo Convention in 1934, to which the United States is a party. Article One: “The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: a) a permanent population; b) a defined territory; c) government;
The central bank and the US Department of the Treasury on Friday issued a joint statement that both sides agreed to avoid currency manipulation and the use of exchange rates to gain a competitive advantage, and would only intervene in foreign-exchange markets to combat excess volatility and disorderly movements. The central bank also agreed to disclose its foreign-exchange intervention amounts quarterly rather than every six months, starting from next month. It emphasized that the joint statement is unrelated to tariff negotiations between Taipei and Washington, and that the US never requested the appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar during the
RSS