The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) recently used its legislative majority to force through the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), thinking it would help increase its popularity ahead of the year-end special municipality elections.
However, the decision had the exact opposite effect. Almost 60 percent of voters are unhappy with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government and according to the latest figures from the Center for Prediction Markets, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) enjoys a big lead in Tainan and Kaohsiung. The KMT enjoys stable support in Taichung City, while the races for Taipei and Sinbei cities are too close to call.
In addition, the decision of DPP Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) to run as an independent, and of DPP Tainan Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) to consider running in Greater Tainan, seem to have galvanized the pan-green camp, greatly increasing its chances of victory.
Simply put, it is hard to see what benefits the ECFA will bring Taiwan.
The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics recently announced that the rich-poor gap stood at 6.34 times last year, and 8.22 times if social benefits and government transfers were excluded, an all-time high. Together with the high unemployment rate, frequent environmental mishaps and the fact that average citizens do not feel their quality of life is improving, this is a big blow to the government.
There is a South Korean saying that local elections make graveyards for ruling parties. This proved true in June when South Korea’s ruling Grand National Party did badly in local leadership elections. Similarly, in France, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party lost to a left-wing alliance in local elections in March.
These examples show that local elections are not always local in nature, because voters often direct their complaints about such national issues as slow economic growth and unemployment toward whoever is in power at the time.
Recent legislative by-elections, the three-in-one elections and the Irrigation Association elections in May have all provided a clear indication of voter sentiment. For example, in the Feb. 27 legislative by-elections, the DPP won three out of four seats, as opposed to March last year, when former KMT legislator Kang Shih-ju (康世儒) was elected as an independent in a Miaoli legislative by-election, while the DPP’s Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) won in Yunlin County.
In the three-in-one elections in December last year, the DPP won 50.96 percent of the vote and the KMT 47.88 percent. Of the 15 irrigation associations long controlled by the KMT, the DPP won control in Yilan, Taoyuan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung, for the first time ever. This will lead to changes in the balance of power across the country.
The KMT’s repeated unsuccessful attempts to play the ECFA card are evidence that its governance and promises to improve living standards have so far failed to convince the public.
However, the KMT shows no sign of re-evaluating its performance. Instead, it has once again resorted to bashing former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), using its legislative majority to amend the Act Governing Preferential Treatment for Retired Presidents and Vice Presidents (卸任總統副總統禮遇條例). Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and Ma have even had the temerity to interfere in an ongoing legal case after the Taipei High Administrative Court ordered the suspension of the Central Taiwan Science Park development.
There is little evidence that trumpeting the supposed benefits of the ECFA will prove to be a winning electoral strategy.
Lu I-ming is the former publisher and president of Taiwan’s Shin Sheng Daily News.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
US president-elect Donald Trump continues to make nominations for his Cabinet and US agencies, with most of his picks being staunchly against Beijing. For US ambassador to China, Trump has tapped former US senator David Perdue. This appointment makes it crystal clear that Trump has no intention of letting China continue to steal from the US while infiltrating it in a surreptitious quasi-war, harming world peace and stability. Originally earning a name for himself in the business world, Perdue made his start with Chinese supply chains as a manager for several US firms. He later served as the CEO of Reebok and
US$18.278 billion is a simple dollar figure; one that’s illustrative of the first Trump administration’s defense commitment to Taiwan. But what does Donald Trump care for money? During President Trump’s first term, the US defense department approved gross sales of “defense articles and services” to Taiwan of over US$18 billion. In September, the US-Taiwan Business Council compared Trump’s figure to the other four presidential administrations since 1993: President Clinton approved a total of US$8.702 billion from 1993 through 2000. President George W. Bush approved US$15.614 billion in eight years. This total would have been significantly greater had Taiwan’s Kuomintang-controlled Legislative Yuan been cooperative. During
US president-elect Donald Trump in an interview with NBC News on Monday said he would “never say” if the US is committed to defending Taiwan against China. Trump said he would “prefer” that China does not attempt to invade Taiwan, and that he has a “very good relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Before committing US troops to defending Taiwan he would “have to negotiate things,” he said. This is a departure from the stance of incumbent US President Joe Biden, who on several occasions expressed resolutely that he would commit US troops in the event of a conflict in
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in recent days was the focus of the media due to his role in arranging a Chinese “student” group to visit Taiwan. While his team defends the visit as friendly, civilized and apolitical, the general impression is that it was a political stunt orchestrated as part of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda, as its members were mainly young communists or university graduates who speak of a future of a unified country. While Ma lived in Taiwan almost his entire life — except during his early childhood in Hong Kong and student years in the US —
RSS