If the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration ever intended to save face, it surely has not been getting any help from China, as the latter continues to upgrade its military in a threatening manner.
Two days before the launch of the cross-strait weekend charter flights, which President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has marketed as a sign of thawing cross-strait relations, reports emerged yesterday that Beijing recently upgraded surface-to-air missiles deployed along its southern coast.
Meanwhile, Xinhua news agency has reported that the Chinese military carried out its first parachuting exercise at Hebei Province’s Shijiazhuang Airport on June 18, in which eight civilian aircraft were involved.
In light of these developments, it appears that only one side — ours — still believes in the vows, made only weeks ago, to set aside differences and rebuild mutual trust.
Just because the KMT government chooses to set aside controversial issues does not mean that those issues do not exist.
US Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia James Shinn recently expressed concerns that the threat of a Chinese attack on Taiwan has markedly increased in the past few years, as the balance in the Taiwan Strait tilts toward Beijing.
Unless it has been blinded by wishful thinking, the KMT government must be aware of this. If it is not, then it needs to be reminded that China’s ultimate goal remains the same: annexation, whatever it takes.
Civilian flights could provide the Chinese military with the cover it needs to penetrate Taiwanese airspace and launch a strike against command-and-control infrastructure.
Such a scenario is feasible. On June 8, The Associated Press reported that two Russian fighter jets tailed a Finnair Airbus for several minutes over northwestern Russia en route from Helsinki to Seoul without the Finnish pilot being aware of it. As it turns out, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen was on that flight.
History shows us that such tactics have their uses. In August 1968, the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia using Soviet military transport planes with airborne troopers on board. By time the aircraft had landed at Prague Airport, the airport had already been occupied by a group of “tourists.” Soon afterwards, Czechoslovakian president Alexander Dubcek was removed from power.
The Soviets used a similar tactic for the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, using civilian aircraft to transport KGB units, who then occupied the airport, entered the presidential palace and killed Afghan president Hafizullah Amin.
The fact that the Straits Exchange Foundation failed to include cargo flights during its negotiations with its Chinese counterpart now seems to be a blessing in disguise.
In its haste to improve relations with Beijing, the KMT government has undermined national security and — despite his calls for military readiness yesterday — Ma has made it likelier that Taiwan will be added to the inglorious list of countries that play down feasible threats and suffer the consequences.
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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