On Sunday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate Frank Hsieh (
Soong has been instrumental in moves to depose the president, so by throwing down this challenge, Hsieh is saying that if more people in Taipei agree with Soong, then he will join the anti-Chen voices.
On the surface, Hsieh's linking of his election performance to his future conduct may seem foolish and make him look like a political fly-by-night.
But Hsieh's announcement is just the latest ingredient in a campaign that has consisted of a delicate mix of policies appealing to optimism even as he indulges in negative campaigning.
Earlier, DPP legislators close to Hsieh launched several broadsides at his main rival, the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) Hau Lung-bin (
They leveled allegations about how Hau and his father, former premier and KMT bigwig Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村), had abused privileges that were part of the old KMT system of patronage. They said former high-level officials such as Hau could live rent-free in government housing and have utility bills paid by the state.
These attacks have been offset by more positive attempts at policy formulation.
Along with the election-time promise to clean up Taipei's rivers -- in line with what he did with the Love River during his time as Kaohsiung mayor -- Hsieh has touted the idea of bringing the Olympic Games to Taipei in 2020 courtesy of his experience in helping Kaohsiung win the right to host the 2009 World Games.
Everybody knows Hsieh's Olympic dream is impossible in the face of China's relentless smothering; still, the idea is designed to make Taipei's residents sit up and think: "Why should Taipei be any different?"
However, turning the DPP's mayoral election fortunes into a plebiscite on the president's future shows just how wily an electoral opportunist Hsieh is.
It is a blatant attempt to split the pan-blue vote.
Hsieh is fully aware that Soong is not doing well in the opinion polls and that both he and Soong are trailing Hau by a considerable margin. He also knows that a split blue vote represents his only chance of winning Taipei, long a bastion of KMT support.
However, Hau cannot win without support from the city's deep-blue element, which has so far been behind Soong and his anti-Chen efforts.
In making his offer, Hsieh is trying to tempt those who dislike him and the DPP to side with Soong and thus eat into Hau's support. The strategy leaves him with nothing to lose, as enough pan-blue supporters will stick with Hau to make a Soong victory impossible, which means he will never have to make good on his promise.
If his plan comes off then he will have a chance of victory -- so long as traditional DPP voters do not desert the party in the wake of first lady Wu Shu-jen's (
Hsieh may not have factored that outcome into his calculations.
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