The new Cabinet, led by incoming premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), will officially take over tomorrow. Among the new Cabinet members that have been announced, vice premier Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and secretary-general Liu Yu-shan (劉玉山) have been a pleasant surprise. The pair's professional backgrounds, expertise and image has given the public high hopes for the new team.
The appointment of Tsai indicates that cross-strait relations will continue to be at the core of President Chen Shui-bian's (
Tsai is believed to have been the person who masterminded the "special state-to-state relationship" model used by former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) to describe cross-strait relations. She is known to have strong and committed views that do not easily succumb to external pressure -- even from Chen.
For example, approximately one month after Chen became president, he expressed an inclination to accept the so-called "1992 consensus," in which the sides agreed on the "one China" principle but retained their own interpretations of what that term meant. Tsai called a press conference the day after to deny that there had been any cross-strait "consensus." On the other hand, in the 2003 debates over adopting a new constitution and establishing a mechanism for referendums, Tsai backed Chen's policies all the way. Therefore, many believe that the Tsai's appointment means that the nation will continue its conservative approach to cross-strait affairs.
Tsai has a professional, academic and impartial image that makes her immensely popular with the general public. This is especially helpful to Chen's government, whose image took a nose-dive when scandals involving former presidential aide Chen Che-nan's (
The appointment of Liu is also refreshing, for two important reasons. Liu is no longer a member of any political party. He was previously a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member, but did not renew his membership two years ago. His appointment reinforces the impression that the Chen government, and Su in particular, is willing to promote individuals based on their talent, even if they have to reach across party lines to do so. Liu served as the deputy secretary-general of the Cabinet in 1999, when the KMT was in power and Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) was the premier. He survived the change in ruling parties and five premiers. His expertise and familiarity with the Cabinet's affairs are unquestionable.
Now, for the sake of the Taiwanese people, Tsai, Liu and the rest of the new Cabinet must strive to fulfill the public's high expectations.
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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