KMT-PFP alliance candidate Hsieh Shen-shan (謝深山) won the Hualien County commissioner election by a landslide. DPP candidate You Ying-lung (游盈隆) came second, marking his fourth defeat in the county. In this election, the residents of Hualien County, which many people traditionally refer to as "the back mountain" in a condescending tone, discovered that overnight their county had become the center of pubic attention and the object of desire for all political parties. Anybody who was anybody in Taipei was there, from the president to chairmen of political parties, from ministry heads to soap opera stars.
The same sentiment can be discovered in the the numerous Aboriginal tribes and Hakka communities in Hualien. Never before did they know that so many politicians were their kin until this election campaign.
Ironically, despite the elaborate, large-scale and high-profile campaign activities, the county's residents remain relatively uninterested in politics. Around 55 percent of the registered voters cast their votes. This figure is no better, if not worse, than for previous elections. In the county commissioner election two years ago, 60.7 percent of the electorate cast their votes, and in 1997 just 52.5 percent did so. These figures are considered low in Taiwan, a young democracy where people's interest in elections is high and where the level of voter participation in presidential elections is around 80 percent.
This is probably because the people there know only too well that the party would end as soon as the election ended last night. They did not believe that the result of the election would make any difference to their lives. Many justifiably feel skeptical about how many of the campaign promises made by Hsieh will actually be realized.
Another noteworthy phenomenon in this election was the controversy surrounding the government's large-scale campaign to crack down on vote-buying. No one denies that intrusion into people's rights beyond what is already permitted by the law is not warranted under any circumstances, not even to crack down on vote-buying. It still seemed odd that the government's efforts were so unappreciated, and how much they appeared to have worked against the ruling camp. Of course, the ruling camp has the pan-blue camp to thank for inciting all these negative sentiments.
One cannot help but wonder how much the people in Taiwan are willing to put up with in order to enjoy real democracy? After all, vote-buying can seriously distort the expression of popular will. Do people draw the line when their lives are inconvenienced by traffic jams caused by police checks on the roads or searches in their neighborhoods? Some pro-pan-blue newspapers have used these to try to provoke resentment in Hualien. In all likelihood, they probably succeeded to some degree.
It was also sad to see members of the Hualien Prosecutors' Office abusing their authority. Only hours before the election began, a supporter of You Ying-lung was taken into custody and then later released on bail by the Hualien Prosecutors' Office. Surprisingly, the KMT not only knew this was about to happen but in fact made a public announcement about it during the campaign rally on the eve of the election. The neutrality of the prosecutors' office has come under serious scrutiny as a result. How much did this event affect the result of the election? No one knows.
With the Hualien election out of the way, the parties are getting ready for the big event -- the presidential election. While it is hard to see any real connection between the Hualien election and the presidential election, at least all the parties got a trial run before the real thing.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of