I have been watching the endless protests since the election on March 20. The pan-blues are demanding a recount, a new election, a state of emergency, a special task force to investigate the election-eve assassination attempt and so on.
It is hard to say what the protests are about because the protesters keep changing their demands all the time, leaving us confused about what they really want. From my point of view, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has given reasonable explanations for all the doubts the pan-blues have raised, but they keep coming up with something new to keep the protests going.
I listened to the press conference that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
I read that there were no reasonable facts to support what Lien and Soong have been saying -- they only kept saying the election was unfair, that the election was rigged and that the assassination was staged. When asked if they had any particular evidence to support the allegations, they could not give a satisfactory answer.
So, what do the pan-blues really want? They have been rejecting any proposal that tries to resolve the problem peacefully. It is evident that they want to keep these endless protests going until Lien and Soong are declared unconditionally the winners. Otherwise, they are going to harass our lives forever.
But the question is, are Taiwanese that blind? Are people really so easily cheated with these allegations?
Maybe the protests will have some effect in the beginning, but for a long-term battle, unless you come up with something real, the pan-blues will certainly have to pay big for what they are doing.
I hope that Lien and Soong and their lawmakers will stop using their supporters as a weapon and keep the battle between politicians and the courts. Please let us live our lives in peace again!
S.A. Matsuyama
Sao Paulo, Brazil
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
RSS