Taiwan's unprecedented two gold and three silver medals at the Athens Olympics excited the nation as a whole. President Chen Shui-bian (
So, with the Beijing Olympics only four years away, what should Taiwan do? Various approaches are already appearing. Senior presidential advisor Peng Ming-min (
Chen's talk of winning seven gold medals in the Beijing Olympics suggests that Taiwan not only intends to take part in the 2008 Games, but will also send its top athletes to create a stir there. This will certainly heighten international awareness of Taiwan. The country does not have the resources to play tough with China over the cross-strait issue, and any victory will have to be the result of strategic flexibility. There is no hurry on the issue of Taiwan's name. The question of whether or not to go to Beijing is a problem, but there are many variables to deal with in the meantime, and Taiwan has no need to make a snap decision about it.
The private sector in Taiwan is already exploring the possibility of winning the bid to host the Olympics in 2016. This is food for thought for both the government and the public. In competing for this bid, Taiwan will show itself to have a place and status in the international community, earning a higher degree of visibility within it.
Bidding to host the 2016 Olympic Games is a campaign that will require the mobilization of society as a whole. In addition to the participation of the entire sports sector, the assistance of the government and non-governmental organizations will be necessary. The process would also help consolidate Taiwanese unity and stimulate citizens' sense of honor. Of course, China's attitude will be key to a Taiwanese bid for the 2016 Olympic Games.
When Beijing was bidding for the 2008 Olympic Games, Taiwan cast its vote of approval, disregarding cross-strait tension. This allowed Beijing to stand out from its major competitors and win the bid. Therefore, this would be the best time for China to return the favor and express its goodwill toward Taiwan.
If China opposes an Olympic bid by Taiwan, the international community and the Taiwanese people will clearly see the true face of Chinese arrogance. But if Beijing supports a Taiwanese bid, and the two countries' teams were to appear side by side in Taipei, it would be the ultimate reflection of the peaceful spirit of the Olympics. The host of the 2016 Olympic Games will be decided prior to the 2008 Olympic Games. Perhaps Taiwan could decide whether to attend the event in Beijing based on China's attitude toward a Taiwanese Olympic bid.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
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