When global experts in a given field come to Taiwan to see what is actually taking place under the watch of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) overseers, a pall quickly settles over the cliche of Taiwanese vibrancy and openness. The devil in the detail offers instant sobriety for anyone willing to look.
Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng’s (王清峰) renewed defense of her unhappy terrain is merely one instance of this government’s standard refusal to acknowledge international expertise and the legitimate concern of professionals who care for Taiwan’s future. The standard — and acutely patronizing — technique, at which Wang excels, is to say critics suffer from “misunderstandings,” smarmy code for “You are not Chinese and therefore intrinsically ignorant.”
Sadly, decay in governance does not rate highly on the agenda of other governments because its significance cannot compete with the greater interest of defusing the Taiwan Strait as a flashpoint — and as a thorn in the side of better relations between China and the world’s most powerful states.
Taiwan’s cause is not helped by being in a region dominated by governments that have struggled to be more than just structures that keep a population from rioting.
To the Washington policymaker or think tank researcher, fretting over Taiwanese domestic concerns would therefore reflect a grossly disorganized set of priorities when there are insurgencies, epidemics, juntas and terrorists to monitor.
Meanwhile, China’s growing influence in the region is benefiting from a dual malaise in the US government: the shadow of the Middle East obscuring the China threat (for those who acknowledge the threat), and the underlying US establishment belief in the sacredness of a Chinese state and its destiny (for those who do not).
So is that all there is to it? Can Taiwan’s plight — the increasing likelihood of annexation by an oppressive state with the KMT as its shepherd — only be taken seriously when it is far too late to intervene, assuming that the only nation that can do so still has the willpower?
There must be something about the decay of democratic sensibilities that would offend even the most credulous of China-friendly pundits in Washington. Part of this offense would derive from damage to the contribution that forces in the US have made to Taiwan’s economic success and political progress.
Such damage would also have philosophical consequences for a superpower that failed to live up to its promise of support and friendship for reasons that have been — from beginning to end — logical but dishonorable.
The final, crushing message would be: If natural resources are worth protecting, we are happy to generate undefeatable enemies, and if the price is right, by God, we are prepared to abandon our vulnerable friends.
The good, if bittersweet, news for Taiwan is that the fight will go on, in some form, over some period of time.
China might think it has friends in power now — in Taipei and possibly in Washington — but this temporary fillip cannot rewrite hundreds of years of colonial atrocity, nor prevent misrule by Chinese predators who are fundamentally hostile to Taiwan, its people and its way of life.
To The Honorable Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜): We would like to extend our sincerest regards to you for representing Taiwan at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on Monday. The Taiwanese-American community was delighted to see that Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan speaker not only received an invitation to attend the event, but successfully made the trip to the US. We sincerely hope that you took this rare opportunity to share Taiwan’s achievements in freedom, democracy and economic development with delegations from other countries. In recent years, Taiwan’s economic growth and world-leading technology industry have been a source of pride for Taiwanese-Americans.
Next week, the nation is to celebrate the Lunar New Year break. Unfortunately, cold winds are a-blowing, literally and figuratively. The Central Weather Administration has warned of an approaching cold air mass, while obstinate winds of chaos eddy around the Legislative Yuan. English theologian Thomas Fuller optimistically pointed out in 1650 that “it’s always darkest before the dawn.” We could paraphrase by saying the coldest days are just before the renewed hope of spring. However, one must temper any optimism about the damage being done in the legislature by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), under
As Taiwan’s domestic political crisis deepens, the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have proposed gutting the country’s national spending, with steep cuts to the critical foreign and defense ministries. While the blue-white coalition alleges that it is merely responding to voters’ concerns about corruption and mismanagement, of which there certainly has been plenty under Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and KMT-led governments, the rationales for their proposed spending cuts lay bare the incoherent foreign policy of the KMT-led coalition. Introduced on the eve of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the KMT’s proposed budget is a terrible opening
US President Donald Trump on Monday gave his inauguration speech. Although mainly directed at US citizens, his words were subject to global scrutiny by leaders and others wanting to understand more about his intentions for his second term. The US has been Taiwan’s strongest ally since the end of World War II and Trump’s first term brought many welcome advances in Taiwan-US ties. Still, many Taiwanese are concerned about what Trump’s second term will mean for the nation, especially after comments he made concerning Taiwan’s national defense and semiconductor industry. During Monday’s address, Trump said that the US “will once again consider
RSS