When former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (
Not a word was said about another former president, Lee Teng-hui (
Democracy puts the people first. During Chiang's authoritarian rule, the Taiwanese people counted for nothing. He often spoke of democracy, but that was all it was -- talk. But we cannot disregard what he said just because of who he was. When Lien quoted Chiang, he wanted to show that he also understands democracy. Regrettably, he doesn't understand that the people should come first.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Prosecutors Office announced that it was closing its investigation into the 319 assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian (
But Lien, stressing that one has to "approach an issue from the people's perspective" ridiculed the decision, calling it the laughingstock of the international community and saying that "the KMT would expose the truth for the people, for the country and for history." From the March 19 shooting to the lawsuits challenging the fairness of the election and demanding that it be declared invalid, Lien has called anything that doesn't meet his expectations a joke, which is very different from what the public feels.
The pan-blue camp has been fighting ever since March 19 last year, but they have offered no solid evidence for their endless political accusations. Even the international media are tiring of this situation. Think about it: the KMT is well-connected in the intelligence community and has a lot of private investigators and ballistics experts. Despite this, they still cannot find any hard evidence to support their claim that the shooting was staged. Isn't this odd?
The pan-blue camp's shadow boxing in fact only satisfies its own paranoia. The roots of this paranoia lie in the unwillingness of Lien and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) to face up to facts. They and their retinue of fantasy writers think that as long as the 319 shootings remain in doubt, Chen has not won the election and Lien and Soong have not lost it.
In fact, fabricating politically disputable issues has long been a forte of the Chinese people. One classic example is the anecdote of the Yongzheng Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, who was said to have forged the will of his father, the Kangxi Emperor, so that he could ascend to the throne.
Just like Mao Zedong (毛澤東), many a politician in China believes that lies will become the truth if they are repeated often enough. Now, many would rather believe in the juicy details in the unofficial history of the Yongzheng Emperor than the truth that has been revealed by serious historical research, which only goes to show that such political skulduggery by politicians can still be influential.
The pan-blue camp has adopted a similar approach by holding tenaciously onto the 319 assassination attempt. Their method is very simple: Since we cannot find any hard evidence to back up our accusation that the shooting was staged, we will simply do all we can to discredit the investigation and give free rein to our imagination in creating an endless series of "Bulletgates" aimed at making the public doubt the credibility of the prosecutorial and police investigations.
Pan-blue camp media reports of an opinion poll showing that only 19 percent of respondents were ready to accept the Supreme Prosecutors Office's decision to wrap up the case is of course just one necessary part of this approach.
In short, what the pan-blue camp has been hoping for is not the gradual resolution that the public hopes for, but rather that the victims of the shooting, Chen and Lu, should also become political victims.
The blue camp's defamation strategy in fact aims to create a social division, where those who believe will do so forever, and those who do not believe will never do so.
Is this what Lien means by saying that "You always have to approach an issue from the people's perspective, and solve the problems according to the needs of the people?"
The rejection of the result of last year's presidential election is tantamount to negating the democratic choice of the people. Slandering prosecutors and the judiciary is no different from letting politics supersede the rule of law. This is simply an attempt to encourage political obscurantism. Lien has now stepped down, and Soong is likely to follow suit. The Taiwanese have had enough of their farce.
The pan-blue camp, to quench their thirst for power, have not shrunk from trampling on Taiwan's democracy and allying themselves with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in order to control Taiwan. Indeed, they should feel ashamed and remorseful for having used the words of Chiang. Taiwan is, after all, a country under the rule of law where the judiciary should deal with judicial matters and politicians with political issues.
Politics should be put aside and now that the judiciary has put an end to the case, so should the politicians.
Translated by Daniel Cheng and Perry Svensson
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) were born under the sign of Gemini. Geminis are known for their intelligence, creativity, adaptability and flexibility. It is unlikely, then, that the trade conflict between the US and China would escalate into a catastrophic collision. It is more probable that both sides would seek a way to de-escalate, paving the way for a Trump-Xi summit that allows the global economy some breathing room. Practically speaking, China and the US have vulnerabilities, and a prolonged trade war would be damaging for both. In the US, the electoral system means that public opinion
RSS