It appears that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has gone insane. Its derangement is such that it ignores an external threat to maintain an obvious fantasy. The threat is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the KMT’s long-time enemy and the foe of all freedom-loving people in Taiwan, whereas the KMT fantasy refers to the party’s blind adherence to an outdated Republic of China Constitution in the hope that doing so will help the KMT hold on to what remains of its political power. Moreover, the CCP can see that the KMT has lost its grip on reality, and is setting a trap to gain control of Taiwan.
What made the KMT go mad? According to former presidential adviser Peng Ming-min (彭明敏), the KMT’s recent psychosis could be explained by its loss of power in 2000 to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), a pro-independence party that the KMT had previously outlawed and whose leaders it had jailed.
The KMT had assumed that power over Taiwan would be in its hands forever, just as it had assumed in the past that it would control all of China in perpetuity. Psychologically, the KMT’s loss to the DPP in 2000 finally drove home to the KMT the fact that it had actually lost China many years before and had been living a myth ever since. After losing the absolute power it had held for 55 years through its one-party dictatorship, KMT officials felt insulted and desperate, with Peng saying they acted as if they were on the verge of a mental breakdown.
Like any person whose sense of reality is shattered, the party lashed out in all directions, trying to impeach the president and block all DPP policies, even if they involved buying the arms that the KMT could not get enough of in the 1980s and 1990s, and even turning to the CCP for help. The KMT blocked legislation and refused any attempt at national reconciliation. In 2004, when it lost to the DPP again, its leaders refused to accept defeat and initiated a broad series of street protests that paralyzed politics at the expense of the nation.
As a side effect of losing power to the DPP, many in the KMT began to increasingly feel they were on the losing side of a battle against the CCP for freedom and decided to cut their losses. The most striking example of this involves former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), who initiated an annual KMT-CCP summit in 2005 following his second defeat by former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Seeing its enemy thus weakened, the CCP welcomed KMT envoys with open arms, red carpets and promises of economic gifts, true friendship and everlasting peace between brothers. The KMT fell for this hook, line and sinker. The CCP-KMT summits led to meetings between Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, which have resulted in the nearly inevitable economic absorption of Taiwan by China.
Back in power, the KMT is willing to do anything to stay there, Peng says. However, the party should read the analysis of Richard Fisher, a senior fellow on Asian military affairs at the Washington-based International Assessment and Strategy Center, of China’s latest defense white paper before relying on the CCP for help. Fisher says the CCP makes it clear in the paper that it wants the KMT to initiate political negotiations toward reunification immediately and that it is using a strategy of economic sweeteners to divide and conquer Taiwan.
In its insanity, the KMT has turned to the CCP to regain power in Taiwan and hopes the Communists will help it hold on to power. However, the KMT is checkmating itself and could lose whatever political control it retains.
It is employment pass renewal season in Singapore, and the new regime is dominating the conversation at after-work cocktails on Fridays. From September, overseas employees on a work visa would need to fulfill the city-state’s new points-based system, and earn a minimum salary threshold to stay in their jobs. While this mirrors what happens in other countries, it risks turning foreign companies away, and could tarnish the nation’s image as a global business hub. The program was announced in 2022 in a bid to promote fair hiring practices. Points are awarded for how a candidate’s salary compares with local peers, along
China last month enacted legislation to punish —including with the death penalty — “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists.” The country’s leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), need to be reminded about what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has said and done in the past. They should think about whether those historical figures were also die-hard advocates of Taiwanese independence. The Taiwanese Communist Party was established in the Shanghai French Concession in April 1928, with a political charter that included the slogans “Long live the independence of the Taiwanese people” and “Establish a republic of Taiwan.” The CCP sent a representative, Peng
Japan and the Philippines on Monday signed a defense agreement that would facilitate joint drills between them. The pact was made “as both face an increasingly assertive China,” and is in line with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s “effort to forge security alliances to bolster the Philippine military’s limited ability to defend its territorial interests in the South China Sea,” The Associated Press (AP) said. The pact also comes on the heels of comments by former US deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger, who said at a forum on Tuesday last week that China’s recent aggression toward the Philippines in
The Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday announced that the military would hold its annual Han Kuang exercises from July 22 to 26. Military officers said the exercises would feature unscripted war games, and a decentralized command and control structure. This year’s exercises underline the recent reforms in Taiwan’s military as it transitions from a top-down command structure to one where autonomy is pushed down to the front lines to improve decisionmaking and adaptability. Militaries around the world have been observing and studying Russia’s war in Ukraine. They have seen that the Ukrainian military has been much quicker to adapt to