There are many reasons for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) losses in the local elections on Nov. 24 last year. To sum up, today’s government and civic society only see the trees — pensions, support for the LGBT community, the five-day workweek and so on — but the more crucial “China factor” is not a priority.
There are two aspects to the China factor: infiltration and discourse. Despite this, the government’s response to China, in particular when it comes to the economy, is lacking and out of touch with reality.
This state of affairs was confirmed by the Mainland Affairs Council on Jan. 2, when council Minister Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) responded to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “Message to Compatriots in Taiwan” by saying that when he returned to the council in March last year, he had hoped to straighten out the cross-strait relationship so that people could live in peace, enjoy their jobs and get rich, but things had taken a turn that he could not have imagined.
If that report in the Chinese-language United Daily News is correct, Chen’s analysis was poor. Was the council really founded to straighten out the cross-strait relationship and make it possible for people to live in peace, enjoy their jobs and get rich?
The statement implies that if cross-strait relations are not straightened out, the economy would not improve and Taiwanese would not be able to live in peace, enjoy their jobs and get rich.
It is precisely because Taiwan is lead by officials like Chen that people believe misleading statements such as Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) idea that by exporting products and boosting tourism, the city would prosper. That chain of events set off a dangerous wave of support for Han.
However, more than a few government officials have the same ideas as Chen — straighten out the cross-strait relationship and the economy would improve and Taiwanese would prosper. They are actually in the majority — this economic policy is the mainstream view within the government.
This is not difficult to prove. Consider the past two years and try to find an official who during a question-and-answer session said that the attraction to China is the cause of Taiwan’s economic problems. How many? Anyone? Next to none.
Pro-blue camp media have been slandering and smearing the Sunflower movement, but have any government officials supported those brave protesters or given them the respect they deserve? Very few, if any.
The government’s only response to the pan-blue camp’s demands to improve cross-strait relations and the economy has been a series of non-committal statements. This has allowed people to forget how then-president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policy of integration with China led to a depressed economy and starting salaries of NT$22,000, and how the Sunflower movement saved the economy.
By this, they turn truth into sophistry and sophistry into truth.
Over the past year, the public has come to firmly believe that it is the DPP’s inability to improve cross-strait relations that is turning Taiwan into an aged and poor country.
Any reform is likely to offend some people, but that does not mean that a nation can go on without reform.
When the Japanese government raised its consumption tax, it offended the whole electorate. The Japanese government also taxes every Japanese traveling abroad. Is Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe afraid of being criticized? No. However, Taiwanese politicians are. Why?
Chen’s statement that he hoped to straighten out the cross-strait relationship so that people could prosper explains everything.
The DPP has not split, nor is it seriously afflicted by corruption. What the party lacks is a correct economic discourse, and if it is not quick to improve this state of affairs and change the misguided policy of economic integration, it will be overtaken by China’s policy to promote unification through economic means.
Huang Tien-lin is a national policy adviser and a former advisory member of the National Security Council.
Translated by Perry Svensson
Within Taiwan’s education system exists a long-standing and deep-rooted culture of falsification. In the past month, a large number of “ghost signatures” — signatures using the names of deceased people — appeared on recall petitions submitted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) against Democratic Progressive Party legislators Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶). An investigation revealed a high degree of overlap between the deceased signatories and the KMT’s membership roster. It also showed that documents had been forged. However, that culture of cheating and fabrication did not just appear out of thin air — it is linked to the
On April 19, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) gave a public speech, his first in about 17 years. During the address at the Ketagalan Institute in Taipei, Chen’s words were vague and his tone was sour. He said that democracy should not be used as an echo chamber for a single politician, that people must be tolerant of other views, that the president should not act as a dictator and that the judiciary should not get involved in politics. He then went on to say that others with different opinions should not be criticized as “XX fellow travelers,” in reference to
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Liu Shu-pin (劉書彬) asked Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) a question on Tuesday last week about President William Lai’s (賴清德) decision in March to officially define the People’s Republic of China (PRC), as governed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as a foreign hostile force. Liu objected to Lai’s decision on two grounds. First, procedurally, suggesting that Lai did not have the right to unilaterally make that decision, and that Cho should have consulted with the Executive Yuan before he endorsed it. Second, Liu objected over national security concerns, saying that the CCP and Chinese President Xi
China’s partnership with Pakistan has long served as a key instrument in Beijing’s efforts to unsettle India. While official narratives frame the two nations’ alliance as one of economic cooperation and regional stability, the underlying strategy suggests a deliberate attempt to check India’s rise through military, economic and diplomatic maneuvering. China’s growing influence in Pakistan is deeply intertwined with its own global ambitions. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative, offers China direct access to the Arabian Sea, bypassing potentially vulnerable trade routes. For Pakistan, these investments provide critical infrastructure, yet they also