The three-week-long Sunflower movement has changed both the way the Taiwanese look at domestic politics and China’s approach if it wants to engage the people of this nation in the future, former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told an interviewer yesterday.
“[The Sunflower movement] was the first time that a social movement with such a scale of mass participation was able to generate so much energy without serious physical confrontations and violence — except for the government’s bloody crackdown against the protesters at the Executive Yuan,” Tsai said in an interview with TV host Cheng Hung-yi (鄭鴻儀), which aired last night.
Tsai, who is expected to win the party’s chairman election later this month, said the student-led movement had “awaken the Taiwanese all of a sudden” and had shown people that the younger generation were able to speak out for the weak, stand up for what they believe in and, at the same time, be rational and persuasive.
The public now realizes that the next generation is ready and willing to not only lead a mass movement, but perhaps also formulate and communicate policy much better than the government, she said.
Meanwhile, Beijing officials could not help but take notice of the diplomatic implications of the movement as they will have to seriously take into account mainstream public opinion and the latest developments in Taiwan and perhaps adjust their policies, she said.
Citing recent remarks by Chinese Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍), Tsai said that China appeared to have paid attention to the changes in Taiwan and to have recognized that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can no longer afford to deal with Taiwan only through the CCP-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) platform.
Asked about President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) governance and his handling of the cross-strait service trade agreement, Tsai said Ma lacked humility as a powerful president, which was why his administration ignored people’s opinions and legislative supervision during the negotiation process.
“And [Ma] wanted to save face at the very end. I would say that the man who put him in that difficult and embarrassing situation was none other but himself,” Tsai said.
Tsai said the DPP’s prospects for the seven-in-one elections in November are “pretty good,” but one should never underestimate the KMT, which remains the ruling party, with much more resources and better local organization than the DPP.
Looking back on her loss in the 2012 presidential election to Ma, Tsai said that Taiwan “has been by-and-large a conservative society” and voters tend to be more conservative with election day and potential changes approaching.
“However, it was time for a change in Taiwan. And it is the same now,” she said.
Taiwanese conservatism works against female candidates in a presidential election, Tsai said.
While voters are more likely to support highly educated female candidates at the local election level, “you cannot say that it’s the same in a presidential election” as they still have doubts about a female president, she said.
Tsai spoke of her plans for the future modestly, saying that she would make herself “an option for the voters in [the presidential election in] 2016.”
“For now, my biggest responsibility will be becoming as good a DPP chairperson as I possibly can,” she said.
In her previous announcement on her campaign platform, Tsai said she would shift the party closer to civil society and make it more rational, sensible and predictable to foster better mutual trust with China.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but