China's continued military expansion has not only increased tension across the Taiwan Strait, but has also made Japan, the US and other nations nervous. The US, as the world's policeman, is especially troubled, for it is responsible for maintaining security in the Asia-Pacific region. If Taiwan's position became endangered, the US could not easily ignore the situation.
The Sino-Japanese relationship has been marked by attacks on each other's territory, with China's Yuan (
China's strengthened military serves not only to discourage any move toward formal independence by Taiwan, but also to threaten Japan. China continues to believe that Taiwan's sense of identity has not completely rid itself of Japanese colonial influence. It has even accused Japan of fanning the flames of Taiwan independence, using this as a way of hinting at its sense of historical injustice at Japan's hands. But Japan is a powerful nation in its own right, and economically at least China is beholden to Japan, so that it dare not adopt too harsh an attitude. Instead it has taken out its sense of historical injustice on Taiwan.
In his video conference with foreign correspondents in Japan on Tuesday, President Chen Shui-bian (
The US, however, seems to clearly understand the close security relationship between Taiwan and Japan resulting from historical and geopolitical factors. That's why it draws Japan closer into the maintenance of security in the Strait as part of the US-Japan security treaty.
"God helps those who help themselves," the saying goes. One could also say that a state must be determined to defend itself in order to expect its neighbors to help. A state lacking that determination will be doomed, for what state will put its people in harm's way for a state that is ready to surrender? The arms procurement bill, so long delayed by the legislature, is really a test of the Taiwanese people's will to defend themselves. If the bill is passed, it will substantially improve the nation's ability to defend itself. And it will also tell the international community that the Taiwanese people are determined to continue moving toward greater autonomy.
At the same time, the pan-blue camp's obstructionism highlights the lack of a central guiding idea in Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) positions. The priority of the past KMT government's diplomatic activities was to purchase advanced weaponry. We must not forget that F-16 fighter jets, French Mirage fighter jets and Lafayette frigates were purchased during the KMT era. Now, with a new government, they have changed their minds and instead make it their top priority to block anything the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government tries to do to improve the nation's military capabilities.
The KMT's fickle ways only prove that the party lacks a clear and constructive political plan. How could such a party gain the public's trust?
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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