The Ministry of Economic Affairs has invited Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標) to be its latest spokesman for the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) that the government is eager to sign with Beijing.
Arguing that Yen is someone who “uses ordinary language to communicate with ordinary people,” Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said Yen was suitable for the task as the ministry had been criticized in the past for using “complicated” language to promote the planned pact. Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) also lauded Yen as “having a local air (本土味),” suggesting TV appearances and other settings designed to promote the pact will speak volumes and have traction with the government’s target audience.
Entertainers Chu Ko Liang (豬哥亮) and Pai Ping-ping (白冰冰) — both also known for their celebrity appeal — are reportedly also being lined up to promote the ECFA.
Yen, a convicted criminal with a large grassroots support base, is known for his affability, and there’s no doubt he would speak the language of the “ordinary person” while chewing betel nut and mingling with the public.
Underneath the praise heaped on him by government officials, however, is a disturbing message: If you support an ECFA, you will graduate from “local” to “high-class.”
It appears the government has continued with the illusion that people opposed to an ECFA are those with little education or low social status.
This disturbing attitude brings back the unpleasant memory of two comic strip characters that the ministry created last year that were both offensive and derogatory.
This government just never learns. Or could it be that it is so arrogant that it is unaware its actions fuel perceptions of social superiority?
Many will recall the furor over the comic strip introduced in July to promote an ECFA. The cartoon featured two stereotypical characters, Yi-ge (一哥), a middle-aged ethnic Taiwanese man who speaks “Taiwanese Mandarin” and opposes the ECFA, and Fa-sao (發嫂), a sharp-minded Hakka career woman with a dashing educational background who supports the deal.
Yen resembles the profile of the notorious Yi-ge, even down to his ruddy appearance. It may be just a coincidence, or it could be that Yen is just a repackaged Yi-ge; either way, the government has again demonstrated that it is missing the point: What, after all, is the substance of an ECFA?
A good product will sell itself. Likewise, a product that lacks substance won’t secure support and endorsement, no matter who vouches for it.
The problem lies not in the lack of a spokesperson to promote the ECFA, but in the fact that no one knows what it contains.
If the government pays lip service to this problem and remains secretive on the pact’s contents, refusing to inform anyone on what it contains before it is signed, then public unease will only increase.
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