“Bolstering national strength through democracy to enter a new global landscape” was the core of President William Lai’s (賴清德) New Year’s address, but even that has upset politicians in the pan-blue camp.
Democracy has not been a value of the fascist Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and “entering a global landscape” is contrary to its leaning toward the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Look at how Taiwan, known for its “silicon shield,” is closely integrated with the “new global landscape.”
As early as 24 years ago, Australian journalist Craig Addison wrote in his book Silicon Shield that if China were to invade Taiwan, the supply chain of the semiconductor industry would be cut off, immediately hitting the global information industry and triggering military intervention by Western countries led by the US.
More than 20 years later, Taiwan’s silicon shield has become only more important. Based on 2022 data, Taiwan ranks first in the world in wafer foundry services, first in IC packaging and testing, second in IC design and second in total output value of the IC industry. Four of the world’s top 10 wafer foundries are in Taiwan.
The world needs Taiwan’s high-tech support, so no one wants a war to break out on the “island of the silicon shield.”
Recently, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that “Taiwan’s affairs are our business,” just as former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe said that “a Taiwan contingency is a contingency for Japan.”
Some Chinese nationalists might complain that such attitudes make Taiwan a “pawn of the US and Japan,” but those who say that are actually pawns of the CCP.
In 1996, when Taiwan held its first direct presidential election, instead of taking a leaf out of Taiwan’s book, the CCP carried out missile drills against Taiwan. At that time, the European Parliament warned Beijing, saying that the order of international trade would not be allowed to be disrupted.
Five hundred to 600 international merchant ships pass through the Taiwan Strait every day. A war in the Taiwan Strait would not be a matter solely for Taiwan — it would be an international matter.
An alliance has formed around an Indo-Pacific strategy. Last year, warships from a countries that had not been in the Taiwan Strait for many years sailed there. In addition to the US, warships from Japan, New Zealand, Germany, France, the UK and the Netherlands also sailed through the strait.
On Dec. 15, a shipment of 38 US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks — the world’s most powerful tanks and part of a military procurement package from the US — arrived in Taiwan. On Dec. 20, US President Joe Biden approved potential arms sales to Taiwan.
What does it all mean? Do the CCP and its pawns not know? These acts are not “interference in China’s internal affairs” as Beijing often says. This is telling it that the international order cannot be destroyed and the values of the democratic world cannot be threatened.
Lai’s emphasis on “bolstering national strength through democracy to enter a new global landscape” is a guarantee for Taiwan’s security and development.
However, Taiwan’s biggest crisis lies within, not outside. Politicians of the pan-blue and white camps in the legislature have blatantly become CCP agents to destroy Taiwan from within.
They want to paralyze the Constitutional Court and confiscate the people’s right to recall elected officials. There is no democracy in their hearts. They want to empty out the central government’s finances and paralyze its governance because their “central government” is in Beijing. They do not believe that Taiwan needs a central government.
In their minds, Taiwan does not need national defense, so they cut military budgets, withhold funds for the domestic production of submarines, weakening or even destroying the work.
They have done everything except say out loud that “having the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is sufficient.”
Look at the bills passed or to be passed by the legislature since the beginning of this session. The impact they will have is easily foreseen. The new laws will compromise the rights and interests of women, children, elderly people and workers, while hindering the promotion of social welfare. They will deprive people of their right to medical treatment, and people with cancer or rare disease from getting new drugs. Difficulties with labor funds will affect people’s rights to pensions. In terms of agriculture, they will affect public grain procurement and fertilizer subsidies among many other issues.
The new laws will also delay investments in and implementation of major public construction projects, and disrupt economic growth, as well as urban-rural development balance.
They will delay technology projects, affect the development of scientific research and reduce the willingness of international enterprises to set up branches in Taiwan.
The China-aligned lawmakers did not stop there. They also want to cleanse Taiwan’s population, making it easier for Chinese to immigrate and gain access to the National Health Insurance for themselves and their relatives.
The lawmakers also want to restore the pension benefits of government workers to what they were prior to reform. Are they not afraid that the public service pension fund would go bankrupt? No, they do not care, because destroying Taiwan is their mission.
Lee Hsiao-feng is an honorary professor at National Taipei University of Education.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
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