The National Assembly elections will take place in less than a month. Campaigning, however, is nonexistent. A recent opinion poll suggest that most voters don't know the election date -- May 14 -- and that half don't know what the elections are for, or what impact they will have. This is largely due to the media's obsession with the China trips by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
There have been some who have been trying to cool Lien and Soong's China fever. Former president Lee Teng-hui (
Opposition between localization and pro-China forces is building up again. Both sides are eloquent. The general public is unable to decide who is right and who is wrong, and neither side is capable of persuading the other. Perhaps the National Assembly elections could be seen as a vote of confidence, with the public deciding if Taiwan should continue to engage with, or distance itself from, China.
The assembly is being elected to vote on constitutional amendments to halve the number of legislative seats, adopting a single-member district, two-vote system for the legislative elections and abolishing the institution of the National Assembly.
Although President Chen Shui-bian (
If the political parties wish to increase the political significance of the assembly elections by turning them into a vote of confidence, the TSU and the PFP should begin by ending their technical obstruction and speed up the passage of the law governing the National Assembly's exercise of power (
Lien and Soong's trips to China are certain to be seen by Beijing as a great opportunity to promote its unification agenda and blur national consciousness in Taiwan. This is an important political issue for this country, not a judicial issue. Courts will not be able to determine if Lien and Soong's visits are the right thing to do. Only by bringing their ideas and actions to the public and letting the Taiwanese people as a whole decide if their political judgment and opinions go against the public's wishes will we get a clear answer to that question.
If the parties want to increase the significance of these neglected assembly elections as well as their own political responsibilities, they could do so by intensifying their campaigning. This would be a great opportunity to educate the public in civic politics, and the best way to resolve the conflict over constitutional amendments and China policies.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has prioritized modernizing the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to rival the US military, with many experts believing he would not act on Taiwan until the PLA is fully prepared to confront US forces. At the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Party Congress in 2022, Xi emphasized accelerating this modernization, setting 2027 — the PLA’s centennial — as the new target, replacing the previous 2035 goal. US intelligence agencies said that Xi has directed the PLA to be ready for a potential invasion of Taiwan by 2027, although no decision on launching an attack had been made. Whether
A chip made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) was found on a Huawei Technologies Co artificial intelligence (AI) processor, indicating a possible breach of US export restrictions that have been in place since 2019 on sensitive tech to the Chinese firm and others. The incident has triggered significant concern in the IT industry, as it appears that proxy buyers are acting on behalf of restricted Chinese companies to bypass the US rules, which are intended to protect its national security. Canada-based research firm TechInsights conducted a die analysis of the Huawei Ascend 910B AI Trainer, releasing its findings on Oct.
In honor of President Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday, my longtime friend and colleague John Tkacik wrote an excellent op-ed reassessing Carter’s derecognition of Taipei. But I would like to add my own thoughts on this often-misunderstood president. During Carter’s single term as president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, despite numerous foreign policy and domestic challenges, he is widely recognized for brokering the historic 1978 Camp David Accords that ended the state of war between Egypt and Israel after more than three decades of hostilities. It is considered one of the most significant diplomatic achievements of the 20th century.
In a recent essay in Foreign Affairs, titled “The Upside on Uncertainty in Taiwan,” Johns Hopkins University professor James B. Steinberg makes the argument that the concept of strategic ambiguity has kept a tenuous peace across the Taiwan Strait. In his piece, Steinberg is primarily countering the arguments of Tufts University professor Sulmaan Wasif Khan, who in his thought-provoking new book The Struggle for Taiwan does some excellent out-of-the-box thinking looking at US policy toward Taiwan from 1943 on, and doing some fascinating “what if?” exercises. Reading through Steinberg’s comments, and just starting to read Khan’s book, we could already sense that
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