The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) National Congress that opens on Sunday will be a key factor in shaping the political environment of Taiwan, not only in terms of next year's legislative and presidential elections, but also the future of the DPP. The focus of the meeting will be on whether to add a clause to the "normal country resolution" stipulating that the nation's title shall be changed to "Taiwan."
The "Republic of China" (ROC) now exists in name only. Quickly changing the national title to "Taiwan" is the hope of most DPP members. But when the DPP's Central Standing Committee discussed the resolution, the words "correcting the nation's official title to Taiwan" in the draft were replaced by the vaguer "writing a new constitution and the correction of the national title as soon as possible."
This kind of substitution gives people the feeling that it was done in a perfunctory manner. What does "as soon as possible" mean? When will that be? This sounds like a Chinese cookbook that talks about adding "some salt" or a "suitable amount of sugar." The meaning is lost.
In Western cookbooks, amounts are precisely written in teaspoons or grams. The vagueness and over generalization in the resolution leaves one feeling they are just empty phrases.
Another crucial factor is the deletion of the words "correcting the nation's official title to Taiwan" in the draft. This strips the resolution of its soul. The 300,000 supporters who took to the streets in Kaohsiung and the 4,000 people who gathered at a rally in New York to push for the UN referendum under the name "Taiwan" show that only the name "Taiwan" arouses people's passion.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
If the DPP's presidential candidate moves closer to the political middle ground, however, he will be abandoning the ideals behind writing a new constitution and correcting the national title, which would take Taiwan further along the path toward normal statehood.
The name "Taiwan" is the DPP's trump card. Dropping this card and following Ma toward the center would be a mistake in principle as well as in strategy.
Playing the "Taiwan" card can not only consolidate the pan-green camp, but also build support for the DPP.
Statistics from the Government Information Office show there have been more than 1,600 reports published by the international media reflecting the Taiwanese government's active UN bid this year. This figure is four to eight times more than in past years.
Former US senator Bob Dole, who was also the US Republican Party's 1996 presidential candidate, published an article in the Wall Street Journal supporting Taiwan's UN bid. Dole wrote that "... the country is applying under its own name [`Taiwan'] rather than its official appellation [`ROC'], which is certainly worthy of public support." He also wrote that "[Taiwan] meets all of the requirements of statehood under law."
An opinion poll showed that about 80 percent of Americans know that Taiwan is a country, but that only one percent of Americans know that Taiwan is not a UN member.
The opinion poll published on Sunday by the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper) explained the situation: 70 percent of Americans say that if Taiwan passes its referendum on a UN bid under the name "Taiwan," the US should not oppose the wishes of the Taiwanese.
Clearly, only if Taiwanese speak up and reveal the truth will they be able to elicit sincere support.
Meanwhile, in the run-up to the DPP's National Congress, DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun has been indicted for allegedly misusing his "special allowance fund."
As the pan-blue camp is attempting to get rid of the DPP heavyweights through judicial means, conscientious DPP supporters who have set the future of Taiwan as their top priority should form a support group urging Yu not to resign from his post.
At the same time, all DPP supporters should advocate the inclusion of the words "correcting the nation's official title to Taiwan" in the "normal country resolution." History is in the making.
Cao Changqing is a political commentator based in the US.
Translated by Lin Ya-ti
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