The uncertainty surrounding the Economic Sustainable Development Conference finally came to an end last week, when Vice Premier Tsai Ing-wen (
Since the Democratic Progressive Party took power in 2000, it has organized several conferences, which have reached a long list of conclusions, beginning with the Economic Development Advisory Conference in 2001, in which 322 recommendations were approved. In particular, former president Lee Teng-hui's (
There followed a national conference on social welfare services in 2002, a national conference on population policy in 2004, a national energy strategy conference last year and a national sustainable development conference this April. Some of the conference conclusions became law, but many others have still not been passed because of political paralysis in the legislature.
Opposition parties have threatened to boycott next month's conference because the government has not fully implemented decisions reached at the 2001 conference -- especially the consensus to move ahead on cross-strait economic links. Industry representatives also gave a lukewarm response to the conference after President Chen Shui-bian (
But the Cabinet's announcement last week of plans to expand cross-strait passenger and cargo charter flights appeared to help improve domestic sentiment for the moment. Moreover, the inclusion by the Mainland Affairs Council of China-bound investment matters in the preparatory meetings over the coming six weeks has heightened expectations for the event. Such matters will include a possible lifting of the current limit on Taiwanese firms' investment in China.
However, it is questionable whether the Cabinet can use a national conference to solicit the collective public will and untangle difficult issues. Facing rising calls from business circles for further relaxations in cross-strait trade and investment, it is certainly questionable whether participants can stand up for national security concerns and reach a conclusion that maintains Taiwan's competitiveness while securing a balance between global markets and the Chinese market.
Given the nation's entrenched political polarization, some have worried whether any meaningful and realistic conclusions could come from the conference. How can such a divided country reach agreement on cross-strait policies such as whether to allow Taiwanese banks to invest in Chinese lenders or allow chipmakers to invest in 0.18-micron process technology in China?
Some politicians and mass media prefer to focus on political scandals. But why not try to draw the public's attention to next month's conference, which will focus on cross-strait issues, as well as structural and long-term development issues including financial reform, labor shortages and environmental protection? In a country like Taiwan, where many political figures have no vision for the nation because they can only see their enemies, a constructive exercise like the conference could make a refreshing change.
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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