With just a year left until he leaves office, President Chen Shui-bian (
Wu's predecessors, Chen Chien-jen (
Since he became president, Chen has sent a number of DPP members to learn the diplomatic ropes as deputy representatives to the US, but has demonstrated his respect for the professionalism required by the job by retaining more qualified Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members in the top post. However, to train its own members in diplomacy and North American affairs, the DPP has finally sent one of its own. If it hadn't, it would have squandered an opportunity to make its mark on US-Taiwan relations.
When problems arose between Taiwan and the US, there was some mutual distrust between Taipei and the representative office in Washington due to differing political backgrounds. Both Taipei and Washington wondered if their messages were getting through, or whether they were being distorted through the prism of domestic politics. As a result, the Presidential Office often bypassed regular diplomatic channels to contact the Bush administration, leaving the official representative office in charge of administrative affairs only. But as Wu has Chen's trust, he should be able to put an end to the confusion and redundancies.
Although Taiwan-US relations are fundamentally diplomatic affairs, Washington has always been a main battleground during exchanges between China and Taiwan. Since Beijing began enlisting the US' help in restraining Taiwan from changing the "status quo," Washington has become the most direct and effective shortcut for each to exert pressure on the other.
This has been especially true since former US deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick began encouraging China to become a "responsible stakeholder." For example, during a visit to the US in 2005, Chinese President Hu Jintao (
Chen's appointment of a seasoned veteran in cross-strait affairs to represent Taiwan in Washington clearly demonstrates his view that cross-strait relations are an extension of Taiwan-US relations. In doing so, he has established a strategic triangle between the three countries.
Wu's appointment as Taiwan's most crucial diplomatic officer will be a heavy responsibility and test of his ability. As the first DPP representative to the US and one of Chen's most trusted allies, he will not only be the nation's envoy in Washington, but also a channel of communication and the architect of mutual trust between Taiwan and the US. He will also need to use the US' political leverage to maintain balance among the three players in the Taiwan Strait.
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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