Here is a simple question: What is the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP)?
The original TPP was established during the Japanese colonial era by Taiwanese democratic trailblazer Chang Wei-shui (蔣渭水), and the name carries heavy historic significance.
However, the chairman of the new version, Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), has performed a reverse takeover, hijacking the historic party name and coming out with political slogans that are prettier than practical, including: “An inclusive society with national governance, in Taiwan’s name, based on the people,” “Reason, Pragmatism and Science,” “Popular will, professionalism and values” and “Executive power.”
Can Ko’s TPP’s live up to its name? Further observation is needed, but this is doubtful.
Ko once said: “I am deep green.” Yet, the TPP is utterly opposed to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
This is how political parties operate in a pluralistic democracy. However, a key question is, why has Ko relinquished party control by letting TPP Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) help Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) party convenor Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) use the legislative tyranny of the majority to infringe on Taiwanese’s rights and liberties? To date, Ko has remained silent on this matter.
“Taiwan urgently needs character education. Those with character need to be morally brave. They should speak up when they see something wrong. We need to consider how to create an environment that allows students to see unjust things, and dare to speak out. This is the education we need the most,” Ko said when he was head of National Taiwan University Hospital’s Department of Traumatology in 2013.
Eleven years later, Ko’s words are caricaturesque.
The sinking of the TPP’s political morals and ethics has been glossed over by young Ko supporters, yet not even they can avert their gaze when they see the chaotic outcome of the KMT-TPP legislative collusion.
Human nature is frail. The TPP painted itself as a third political force against the “absolute KMT-DPP polarization,” but the TPP fell into line as a KMT subordinate, a “little KMT.”
What is the political significance of young Ko supporters voting for the TPP then? What would the TPP be without them? This is a problem Ko needs to answer immediately.
Knight Chang is a political worker.
Translated by Tim Smith
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
RSS