With Taiwan’s presidential election fast approaching, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) released a campaign advertisement for its presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德) and his running mate Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴). The ad, on the theme of “On the Road,” has been viewed and “liked” by a huge number of people across various social media platforms.
The video starts with Lai and outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) traveling in a car, with Tsai at the wheel, talking about their cooperation in government over the past few years. After a while the car stops, Tsai gets out and in steps Hsiao, as Lai takes the wheel. After Tsai bids them farewell, Lai and Hsiao drive off, while talking about what direction they should take from now on.
In an atmosphere of strictly one-or-the-other ideologies generating various kinds of political hate speech, the campaign video presents a contrasting ambience. The lighting, composition and imagery are all gentle, as is the tone of the conversations, in which the main points are made.
“Recruit outstanding talents from various fields to join the legislature,” “do not be careless about choosing a deputy,” “the most important thing is to safeguard Taiwan’s democracy.” “We will follow the path of democracy forever.” These excerpts from the dialogue all typify the DPP’s consistent style of governance.
A couple of days ago I had a conversation with an elder figure in the field of politics. Regarding the prospects for Taiwan’s presidential election during the final countdown to election day, he was of the opinion that Taiwan People’s Party presidential candidate Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) lack of core principles might cause voters who were originally inclined to vote for him to cast their ballots for the “blue” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) or the “green” DPP instead. He said that the way those votes go will be the key factor that decides which of those two parties wins the elections. He also said that some unexpected incident might cause the votes to go one way or another.
That might be true, but I would also say that we must not overlook the trends among Taiwan’s swing voters. At the same time, among those voters who are defined as “deep blue” or “deep green,” the key question is whether they can exercise independent critical thinking in choosing how to cast their votes, and especially whether the fans of former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who stood unsuccessfully as the KMT’s presidential candidate in 2020, could realize how they have been turned into electoral tools by the KMT.
Another statement made in the DPP ad is: “If you go abroad, you will see how far ahead Taiwan really is among countries.”
Taiwan is also a real model of democracy for the world’s ethnic Chinese. This country has plenty of room for diversity and it strives for peace, democracy and progress. That is something that cannot be achieved by the Chinese Communist Party, which worships dictators and autocrats, and has often engaged in violent internal struggles.
Knight Chang is a political worker and doctor of education.
Translated by Julian Clegg
Jan. 1 marks a decade since China repealed its one-child policy. Just 10 days before, Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), who long oversaw the often-brutal enforcement of China’s family-planning rules, died at the age of 96, having never been held accountable for her actions. Obituaries praised Peng for being “reform-minded,” even though, in practice, she only perpetuated an utterly inhumane policy, whose consequences have barely begun to materialize. It was Vice Premier Chen Muhua (陳慕華) who first proposed the one-child policy in 1979, with the endorsement of China’s then-top leaders, Chen Yun (陳雲) and Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平), as a means of avoiding the
In the US’ National Security Strategy (NSS) report released last month, US President Donald Trump offered his interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. The “Trump Corollary,” presented on page 15, is a distinctly aggressive rebranding of the more than 200-year-old foreign policy position. Beyond reasserting the sovereignty of the western hemisphere against foreign intervention, the document centers on energy and strategic assets, and attempts to redraw the map of the geopolitical landscape more broadly. It is clear that Trump no longer sees the western hemisphere as a peaceful backyard, but rather as the frontier of a new Cold War. In particular,
As the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) races toward its 2027 modernization goals, most analysts fixate on ship counts, missile ranges and artificial intelligence. Those metrics matter — but they obscure a deeper vulnerability. The true future of the PLA, and by extension Taiwan’s security, might hinge less on hardware than on whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can preserve ideological loyalty inside its own armed forces. Iran’s 1979 revolution demonstrated how even a technologically advanced military can collapse when the social environment surrounding it shifts. That lesson has renewed relevance as fresh unrest shakes Iran today — and it should
The last foreign delegation Nicolas Maduro met before he went to bed Friday night (January 2) was led by China’s top Latin America diplomat. “I had a pleasant meeting with Qiu Xiaoqi (邱小琪), Special Envoy of President Xi Jinping (習近平),” Venezuela’s soon-to-be ex-president tweeted on Telegram, “and we reaffirmed our commitment to the strategic relationship that is progressing and strengthening in various areas for building a multipolar world of development and peace.” Judging by how minutely the Central Intelligence Agency was monitoring Maduro’s every move on Friday, President Trump himself was certainly aware of Maduro’s felicitations to his Chinese guest. Just
RSS