The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said it is “unbearable to see” a party with a 100-year-long history having to stoop to citing a “strange article” with a view that “curiously deviates from the US official and academic mainstream’s stance” in order to attack the DPP.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus held a news conference yesterday calling DPP Chairperson and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) “violent Ing” and claiming that the US has given her a slap in her face, citing an article in The Diplomat magazine by Dennis Hickey, a professor of political science and director of the graduate program in global studies at Missouri State University, that questioned Tsai’s pro-independence stance and her “subsidizing [of the] extremists” who attacked government agencies.
“Hickey said in his article that the DPP has been employing ‘a Middle Eastern practice’ of gathering people to cause skirmishes, known as a ‘rent-a-mob,’ and ‘subsidizing extremists who attack government ministries,’ making it ‘increasingly difficult for Americans to sensibly argue that Taiwan is a model of democracy,’” KMT deputy caucus whip Lin Te-fu (林德福) said.
The KMT said that Hickey’s article shows that “the US recognizes the fact Tsai had deeply intervened and financially supported the Sunflower movement and the anti-curriculum movement.”
“The occupation of government agencies is a typical Middle Eastern terrorist group’s practice; the US is really worried that Taiwan could get ‘ISIS-ized,’” Lin said, referring to the Islamic State group, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and claiming the US is also concerned that Tsai’s presidency would bring Taiwan toward de jure independence and drag the US into a war.
KMT presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said the article indicates that Tsai’s US visit earlier this year was a failure, despite the DPP saying it was a success.
“It is a serious problem” that the US, at this point, is making this kind of comment about Tsai, questioning Taiwan’s democracy and suspecting that there might be a war if Tsai gets elected, Hung said.
The DPP said that the article “is biased on a viewpoint that is extremely different to that of US officials and mainstream academics.”
“It is an article believed to have no reference value, but the KMT is desperately clinging to it, taking it as a ‘driftwood on the angry sea,’” DPP spokesperson Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said, adding that Tsai’s US tour met with positive responses from the US.
The article’s likening of Taiwan’s recent democratic movements to “violent Middle Eastern mobs” is “not only rude, but also inappropriate,” Cheng said, adding that Susan Stevenson, deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy at the US Department of State’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, when visiting Taiwan during the 318 movement, said that the US acknowledges that Taiwan is a vivacious democracy where everyone has a right to the freedom of speech.
“The KMT [is using the article as an attempt to] defame its own countrymen and say that social movements equate to Taiwan being ‘ISIS-ized.’ It is just sad to witness a 100-year-old party’s [degeneration],” Cheng said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as