You know election time is around the corner when you start hearing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government officials trumpeting “Taiwan” and “Taiwanese people” in their speeches.
At a seminar in Taipei last week on cross-strait relations from 2008 to this year, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) said in a speech that “putting Taiwan first for the benefit of the people” was the main principle guiding the KMT government’s policy toward China.
“It also needs to be ensured that [Taiwanese] people have the right to decide the future development of cross-strait relations,” she said.
With Double Ten National Day this weekend, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will also likely accentuate the importance of “Taiwan’s interests” and “Taiwanese people” in his national day address.
Naturally, government officials will highlight the great importance they attach to the nation’s interests and its people. However, amid the backdrop of the KMT government signing the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China, it is not hard to see the irony and farce of pro-Taiwan words pouring out of KMT officials’ mouths.
How can the Ma government convince the voters that it truly believes that the “people have the right to decide the future development of cross-strait relations” when the public is muzzled and the government rejects any chance for critics to have their voices heard through a referendum?
On Thursday last week, the Executive Yuan’s Committee of Appeal upheld the Referendum Review Committee’s rejection of a petition, signed by 200,000 people, to put the ECFA to a referendum, again supressing the public’s voice. So much for KMT remarks that the public has the right to decide the future of cross-strait development.
The KMT government should heed the warning suggested by a recent Research, Development and Evaluation Commission poll. The survey showed that in 2007, 63 percent of people referred to themselves as Taiwanese, while 15.4 percent considered themselves Chinese. In 2008, after Ma won the presidency, the group that considered themselves Taiwanese rose to 67.1 percent, while those who regarded themselves as Chinese dropped to 13.6 percent. In a similar poll in May last year, the number who saw themselves as Taiwanese slid to 64.6 percent, although those who saw themselves as Chinese dipped even further, to 11.5 percent.
Statistics from National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center show that in 2007, 43 percent of respondents saw themselves as Taiwanese, while 5.4 percent considered themselves Chinese. In June this year, the percentage of people who identified themselves as Taiwanese rose to 52 percent, while those claiming to be Chinese dropped to 3.8 percent. Meanwhile, the group that saw themselves as Taiwanese as well as Chinese also declined, dropping from 44.7 percent in 2007 to 40.4 percent in June this year.
These numbers suggest that the public’s identification with Taiwan has not diminished despite the Ma administration’s China-friendly policies.
The Ma government can keep using the words “Taiwan” and “Taiwanese people” all it wants, but in case the KMT hasn’t realized, using these phrases to get votes and then tossing them away like toilet paper when their use has been fulfilled will only hurt the Ma government, undermining its credibility and repulsing the public with its hypocrisy.
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then