Ko must address the lies
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) lost to Vice President William Lai (賴清德) by nearly 1.9 million votes in Jan. 13’s presidential election. However, some of Ko’s and TPP’s supporters claimed that voter fraud was to blame for the discrepancy between the party’s polling and the official results. Cognitive warfare waged on TikTok helped to circulate their accusations, but everyone knows that elections in Taiwan are just and transparent, and that voter fraud is extremely unlikely. This is recognized by democratic countries throughout the world. On some video-sharing platforms, Taiwan’s elections have been misrepresented, a distortion harmful to all Taiwanese.
When a mature and sensible politician loses an election, they reflect upon themselves and review their failures. They try to figure out why the majority of voters did not support them. They correct their mistakes and fight again. Ko is not like that.
He knew that no fraud could occur in Taiwan’s elections, but he still attributed his defeat to it. Soon after he realized that the public would not buy his claim, he changed tack, blaming the low voter turnout among younger people for the defeat.
Before the election, most of the polls showed that Ko would finish third. That he could successfully secure 3.69 million votes was already surprising to many. Some people lamented the result, wondering how someone like Ko, a person who is neither thoughtful nor sincere and talks in an incoherent and confusing way, could win the hearts and minds of so many Taiwanese.
A nation’s leader must be mature and stable. They must be a person of integrity. Judging from his political career, Ko lacks the ability and leadership to govern.
When he was Taipei mayor, many people quit their jobs and left the city government because of him. In other words, those who worked under him left him after they had a chance to learn more about him.
During his two terms as mayor, Taipei residents learned that he was not a good mayor, and as a result, they did not vote for Ko in the presidential election.
Ko’s approval rating were the lowest in districts and areas in Taipei, the election results showed. Reports said that the residents of a Hsinchu County village where Ko grew up did not favor him either. These local results say a lot about his character.
Ko’s supporters are mostly young people in their 20s. Once they grow older and accumulate more life experience, their loyalty to Ko would likely decrease. The more mature they are, the less supportive of Ko they would become. Ko knows this, and it is a problem he needs to deal with.
Some of Ko’s followers are students in middle and high schools. They do not have adequate experience to see through Ko, and their source of information is mostly from Chinese video-sharing platforms such as Douyin, the version of TikTok for the Chinese domestic market. As a result, they tell their parents their views and believe that Ko lost the election due to voter fraud. They have fallen victim to China’s cognitive warfare efforts.
While their accusations are absurd and false, Ko should not leave such misinformation as it is. As a politician in Taiwan, he should clarify the issue and take responsibility in protecting Taiwan’s democracy.
Chiu Ping-chin
Taipei
Trying to force a partnership between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and Intel Corp would be a wildly complex ordeal. Already, the reported request from the Trump administration for TSMC to take a controlling stake in Intel’s US factories is facing valid questions about feasibility from all sides. Washington would likely not support a foreign company operating Intel’s domestic factories, Reuters reported — just look at how that is going over in the steel sector. Meanwhile, many in Taiwan are concerned about the company being forced to transfer its bleeding-edge tech capabilities and give up its strategic advantage. This is especially
US President Donald Trump last week announced plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on eight countries. As Taiwan, a key hub for semiconductor manufacturing, is among them, the policy would significantly affect the country. In response, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) dispatched two officials to the US for negotiations, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC) board of directors convened its first-ever meeting in the US. Those developments highlight how the US’ unstable trade policies are posing a growing threat to Taiwan. Can the US truly gain an advantage in chip manufacturing by reversing trade liberalization? Is it realistic to
The US Department of State has removed the phrase “we do not support Taiwan independence” in its updated Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, which instead iterates that “we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the Strait.” This shows a tougher stance rejecting China’s false claims of sovereignty over Taiwan. Since switching formal diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China to the People’s Republic of China in 1979, the US government has continually indicated that it “does not support Taiwan independence.” The phrase was removed in 2022
US President Donald Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have each given their thoughts on Russia’s war with Ukraine. There are a few proponents of US skepticism in Taiwan taking advantage of developments to write articles claiming that the US would arbitrarily abandon Ukraine. The reality is that when one understands Trump’s negotiating habits, one sees that he brings up all variables of a situation prior to discussion, using broad negotiations to take charge. As for his ultimate goals and the aces up his sleeve, he wants to keep things vague for
RSS