With the March 26 rally, the Taiwanese people showed the international community their determination not to accept annexation by China and it also asked the world to help Taiwan oppose any Chinese attempts to take military action based on Beijing's "Anti-Secession" Law.
Regrettably, pro-unification forces are taking every opportunity to weaken Taiwan's demands. Foremost among these is Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
On the day of the demonstration, reporters from this newspaper asked police at the rally for an estimate of participants. At the time, they said it was impossible to make such an estimate. Ma, however, cited police figures when announcing his estimate. Reporters from many countries and media organizations were present to report on the demonstration. They -- and the march participants -- are all witnesses, and Ma's fake numbers convince no one.
This is not very surprising. Ma's long-standing toadying to Beijing has won him the nickname "Chief Executive Ma" -- an echo of the title bestowed on Hong Kong's leader. Last year, when Ma wanted to visit the territory at the invitation of a local group, a slight criticism of the recently proposed Anti-Secession Law led to his being denied a visa. He is now clearly trying to win Beijing's forgiveness.
Ma's announcement that no more than 270,000 people participated in the demonstration is as despicable -- and as easily disprovable -- as former Chinese premier Li Peng's (
Just two days after the rally, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kun (
The international community should know by now that the KMT no longer represents the majority of Taiwanese, and that the party has been rejected by the people in two straight presidential elections. In last December's legislative elections, the KMT only won 79 seats, trailing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the largest party in the legislature, by 10 seats.
The people of Taiwan support peace and hope for cross-strait dialogue. Unfortunately, ever since President Chen Shui-bian (
Taiwan has not given up. It will still work toward establishing a dialogue, but this dialogue should not be conducted by the increasingly marginalized KMT. Instead, it should be conducted by the democratically elected government that represents the people of Taiwan. It is most unwise to offer any praise for the KMT's visit to China, for this is tantamount to encouraging the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party to cooperate in further isolating the DPP and the people of Taiwan which it represents. That is not the kind of dialogue the people want.
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
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
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS