Imperial monarchies can transform into constitutional monarchies through democratization, with the progressive, or left, and conservative, or right, camps ruling by choice. Some imperial monarchies directly turn into “people’s democratic dictatorships” through communist revolutions, which are just communist dictatorships in practice. Based on leftist ideology, these so-called “people’s democracies” become communist autocratic regimes. Both left-wing and right-wing political parties have the potential to become authoritarian and totalitarian.
The right-wing regime of Adolf Hitler was a historical catastrophe, but was the left-wing regime of Joseph Stalin not also a historical catastrophe? And what about communist China under Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) rule? Whether right or left, only in a true democratic system can the meaning and value of progressivism and conservatism be realized.
Some people think that being leftist is politically correct, but much like the right-wing views of political correctness, this is a form of dogmatic thinking that illustrates a cognitive blind spot.
A country, by nature, might be conservative and right-leaning because of its vertical values and boundaries, while progressive leftist values exist in society to regulate the excesses of these vertical values. Only a society that is compatible with both left-wing and right-wing ideologies has the ability to shape a normal nation.
Originally, communism was able to grow and thrive as a fight against capitalism, but it can only rule by totalitarianism and autocracy and is not in line with rational economic principles. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was able to achieve a level of economic prosperity through capitalist reforms, but, as the nature of its rule was essentially unchanged, such prosperity cannot be sustained. The communist slogan “Workers of the world, unite” is meaningless rhetoric due to the walls blocking off the nation, and nationalism is still the guiding principle of communist China.
US President Donald Trump is a conservative, right-wing politician. His slogan “Make America Great Again” fully reflects vertical national values. The US has no history of aggressive colonization. However, just like most former colonial powers, it is facing immigration issues and the strike against leftism, progressivism and other horizontal values. If we take Sigmund Freud’s theory of personality development as an analogy, the US has developed from the “id,” the instinctual self, to the “ego,” the rational self, but has not yet reached the “superego,” the moral and higher self.
Perhaps the US has lost its magnanimity in this way; nonetheless, it is still a democracy ruled by law. Moreover, the US is a federation that grants a high degree of autonomy to its states’ governments. As such, the US’ democratic rule of law should cure its “Trump syndrome” eventually — unlike the People’s Republic of China, whose one-party dictatorship is endless, while democracy appears hopeless.
For Taiwan to become a normal nation, it must have both left-wing and right-wing political parties instead of constantly swinging between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) contradictory stance of being both pro-communist and anti-communist is detrimental not only for Taiwan, but also for the Chinese people, as it only strengthens the CCP’s authoritarianism.
Taiwanese must uphold democratic beliefs and strengthen the rule of law to remain an independent and normal nation, separate from China.
Lee Min-yung is a poet.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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More than 30 years ago when I immigrated to the US, applied for citizenship and took the 100-question civics test, the one part of the naturalization process that left the deepest impression on me was one question on the N-400 form, which asked: “Have you ever been a member of, involved in or in any way associated with any communist or totalitarian party anywhere in the world?” Answering “yes” could lead to the rejection of your application. Some people might try their luck and lie, but if exposed, the consequences could be much worse — a person could be fined,
Taiwan aims to elevate its strategic position in supply chains by becoming an artificial intelligence (AI) hub for Nvidia Corp, providing everything from advanced chips and components to servers, in an attempt to edge out its closest rival in the region, South Korea. Taiwan’s importance in the AI ecosystem was clearly reflected in three major announcements Nvidia made during this year’s Computex trade show in Taipei. First, the US company’s number of partners in Taiwan would surge to 122 this year, from 34 last year, according to a slide shown during CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech on Monday last week.
When China passed its “Anti-Secession” Law in 2005, much of the democratic world saw it as yet another sign of Beijing’s authoritarianism, its contempt for international law and its aggressive posture toward Taiwan. Rightly so — on the surface. However, this move, often dismissed as a uniquely Chinese form of legal intimidation, echoes a legal and historical precedent rooted not in authoritarian tradition, but in US constitutional history. The Chinese “Anti-Secession” Law, a domestic statute threatening the use of force should Taiwan formally declare independence, is widely interpreted as an emblem of the Chinese Communist Party’s disregard for international norms. Critics
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