Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng's (
"There have been discussions at home and abroad, as well as in public and in academia, about the appropriateness of the political elite of a minority ethnic group governing a majority ethnic group," Wang had said on Monday as he pulled out of the campaign for the KMT's presidential nomination.
Wang's notoriously opaque and evasive language on this occasion could not hide his anger at the way in which the KMT has facilitated former chairman Ma Ying-jeou's (
That Wang would make such a damaging comment suggests that the party is on the verge of ensuring that the spoils in the legislative nomination process will be unevenly distributed in favor of Mainlander candidates. The KMT's carefully cultivated image of ethnic inclusiveness is now at risk, and its response in practical terms will be compelling viewing in the months to come.
The curious thing about this development is that for several elections ethnicity has been the KMT's weapon of choice in attacking the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government, even more so than the economy. This has been bolstered by the KMT's claim to a far more balanced membership in ethnic terms, with majority support from the Mainlander, Hakka and Aboriginal minorities and a sizable chunk of support from the Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) majority.
Also curious is the fact that Wang was originally the man the inner sanctum of the KMT wanted to take over as chairman. What this represents in terms of a possible brawl in ethnic or factional terms is not clear -- but it does not bode well for the party so close to an election season.
The DPP, once again, has been thrown a lifeline that it has not earned. It now has the opportunity to hack away at the KMT's rhetoric and practice on issues of ethnicity and identity, and if DPP strategists are half competent, there will be riches for them to mine all the way until the presidential election.
It must be said that Wang's comments have the unmistakable odor of sour grapes. His humiliation at the poll for party chairman, which Ma won, and his withdrawal from the KMT presidential nomination race may have inspired him to speak more direct language, but this does not mean that he had any hope of gaining the nomination in a fair race.
But there must be more to explaining Wang's behavior than petty sniping born of spurned ambition. If he were alone in his fury, there would have been a much angrier response from KMT friends and foes alike. Instead, there was an embarrassed silence, broken only by the odd plea for party unity.
What is clear is that the KMT is starting to struggle to find a common theme other than the fact that it is not the DPP. There might have been a time when this had currency, but no longer.
Wang's comments will reverberate for some time, especially among those unnerved at the idea of Taiwan being ruled by a Mainlander for the first time since dictator Chiang Ching-kuo (
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
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not