Divisions have started to appear within Taiwan's opposition as the parties contesting President Chen Shui-bian's (
While opposition hardliners have insisted that anti-Chen protests in the capital should continue, moderates fear that further demonstrations will alienate their middle-class supporters who are calling for stability, observers say.
And they believe that the under-fire Chen, leader of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), could cash in on the apparent split.
"The noises from the opposition have provided the DPP a chance to reduce the pressure by switching the limelight from the disputed election to the emerging conflict within the opposition," said Wu Tung-yeh (吳東野), professor of National Chengchi University's Institute of International Relations.
Since the March 20 ballot, tens of thousands of opposition supporters have protested Chen's victory. He beat his opponent, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), by less than 30,000 votes, or 0.22 percent of the vote.
Lien and his allies have demanded an independent inquiry into the election-eve shooting of Chen and Vice President Annette Lu (
The opposition has also demanded an amendment to existing election laws and a recount of the ballots. Legal wrangling over the recount is under way.
But while some KMT politicians have been more outspoken in their criticism than others, the most prominent attacks have come from the People First Party (PFP), which joined the KMT in order to challenge Chen in the polls.
"The PFP tends to be radical," said Emile Sheng (
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
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