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.
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