Democracy’s last chance
Taiwan’s democracy faces an unprecedented crisis. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is infiltrating our legislature and taking advantage of our democracy’s weaknesses to direct Taiwan to go the way of Hong Kong, gradually disintegrating our freedoms and democratic institutions to ultimately achieve its ambition to control Taiwan. In this battleground of critical national security battles, each Taiwanese needs to keep their guard up. This is because politics and economics are intimately tied — without a healthy political environment, stable economic development could never occur.
A few days ago, Tainan City Councilor Lee Chong-lim (李宗霖) of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party at a news conference criticized the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) proposal for handing the majority of budget allocations over to local governments, pointing directly to issues with the policy, and revealing the deception and inequality behind the scenes. Lee’s actions are evidence that local councilors’ voices are crucial. Every public opinion survey shows that all politicians should be taking a stand like Lee, refuting the KMT’s and the Taiwan People’s Party’s (TPP) joint attempts to hobble our government. It is a stark reminder that far more members of the public need to understand what is happening.
Meanwhile, recall motions are spreading like wildfire. Recalls are not just a mechanism for opposing lawmakers who are unfit for office; they are an important means for citizens to protect democracy. Recall movements represent an opportunity to show once more that constituents have a right to choose, and are a symbol to the world expressing Taiwan’s steadfast safeguarding of democracy.
However, we must be clear that time might not be on Taiwan’s side. CCP infiltration strategies and KMT-TPP cooperation are being utilized to force our democratic system to oppose democracy itself, imperiling our freedoms. If we choose to stay silent, our future only becomes grimmer. Any hypocrisy and compromise would only serve to drag us several steps back toward dictatorship.
The KMT last month proposed budgets and senior citizen welfare laws that, frankly, are no different from paving a fast lane to CCP infiltration by increasing the inequality of domestic allocations toward citizens. These proposals have the appearance of being fair to everyone, but they sabotage Taiwan’s foundations. We need much braver and more rational voices to speak out and reveal their schemes and shadiness to protect our homeland.
The jump in recall drives across Taiwan is our most direct response against the CCP’s schemes. This latest wave could very well be the public’s final chance to ever use them again. If we do not stand up to the KMT and the TPP, our future choices might be strangled and be later misused as a tool to further disenfranchise true representation.
Shi Li
Tainan
When Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) sits down with US President Donald Trump in Beijing on Thursday next week, Xi is unlikely to demand a dramatic public betrayal of Taiwan. He does not need to. Beijing’s preferred victory is smaller, quieter and in some ways far more dangerous: a subtle shift in American wording that appears technical, but carries major strategic meaning. The ask is simple: replace the longstanding US formulation that Washington “does not support Taiwan independence” with a harder one — that Washington “opposes” Taiwan independence. One word changes; a deterrence structure built over decades begins to shift.
Recently, Taipei’s streets have been plagued by the bizarre sight of rats running rampant and the city government’s countermeasures have devolved into an anti-intellectual farce. The Taipei Parks and Street Lights Office has attempted to eradicate rats by filling their burrows with polyurethane foam, seeming to believe that rats could not simply dig another path out. Meanwhile, as the nation’s capital slowly deteriorates into a rat hive, the Taipei Department of Environmental Protection has proudly pointed to the increase in the number of poisoned rats reported in February and March as a sign of success. When confronted with public concerns over young
Taipei is facing a severe rat infestation, and the city government is reportedly considering large-scale use of rodenticides as its primary control measure. However, this move could trigger an ecological disaster, including mass deaths of birds of prey. In the past, black kites, relatives of eagles, took more than three decades to return to the skies above the Taipei Basin. Taiwan’s black kite population was nearly wiped out by the combined effects of habitat destruction, pesticides and rodenticides. By 1992, fewer than 200 black kites remained on the island. Fortunately, thanks to more than 30 years of collective effort to preserve their remaining
China has long given assurances that it would not interfere in free access to the global commons. As one Ministry of Defense spokesperson put it in 2024, “the Chinese side always respects the freedom of navigation and overflight entitled to countries under international law.” Although these reassurances have always been disingenuous, China’s recent actions display a blatant disregard for these principles. Countries that care about civilian air safety should take note. In April, President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) canceled a planned trip to Eswatini for the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s coronation and the 58th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic
RSS