President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Nov. 24 announced that she is stepping down as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson after the party suffered a string of stinging defeats in the nine-in-one elections. She did so amid a public outcry over her poor and inadequate leadership.
The public trusted and chose Tsai, gave DPP candidates an overwhelming majority in the Legislative Yuan and rejected the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the 2016 presidential and legislative and 2014 local elections. No more than three years later, Tsai has sown despair and dissatisfaction with her government in the hearts of the public.
Unlike her predecessors, Tsai did not present herself as someone strong and determined to challenge increasing financial, military and political pressure and threats from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) said that Taiwan and China had a “special state-to-state relationship.”
Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) stressed the importance of national security and said that Taiwan and China were “one country on either side.”
Both supported the Taiwanization movement and campaign for admission to the UN.
However, from day one, through the nearly three years of her presidency and the DPP’s legislative majority, Tsai has continued to support the “status quo,” despite mounting military, political and financial pressure from China.
China has crossed red lines too many times, yet she dares not challenge it. In domestic affairs, she has stripped Premier William Lai (賴清德) of power, appeased Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and torpedoed former DPP Taipei mayoral candidate Pasuya Yao (姚文智). This has angered most Taiwanese.
Tsai obviously does not support Taiwanization for fear of provoking China. Xi does not care. Instead, her weakness allows and encourages Xi to exert more pressure in all directions.
Consider her most important campaign points in 2016 to overhaul the nation’s judicial system and pursue transitional justice. After more than six months of meetings and conferences, which turned out to be waste of time and money, what result or action could the government offer? The authoritarian past and collective memory are still vivid, and justice has not been served.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dismissed all judicial officials after an unsuccessful coup d’etat in July 2016. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte completely overhauled immigration and customs authorities when unlawful bribery was exposed.
How about Taiwan? Who allows Chinese national flags to be displayed in many corners of Taipei, the nation’s capital? Who allows Taiwan’s flag to be confiscated and destroyed at international sports events in Taiwan?
Who tolerated and allowed disinformation and fake news to be spread by major newspapers and TV stations in Taiwan ? Who allowed massive cyberattacks by China to disrupt democratic elections? Tsai and her administration have embraced such actions as acts of freedom of expression protected by the Constitution.
Tsai’s administration has jeopardized national security and safety. What a difference a strong leader would make.
Tsai’s apology is not enough. She has betrayed democratic values, and the trust and honor given to her by many millions of Taiwanese. Her meeting with Ko this week further exposed her self-centered pride and dictatorial nature.
Her unprincipled attitude and presidency have ruined the Taiwanization movement and the pride of being Taiwanese. Say “no” to her presidency: Ask her to resign and let Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) lead.
Cheng Tien-chu is a former president of the North American Taiwanese Medical Association.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trip to China provides a pertinent reminder of why Taiwanese protested so vociferously against attempts to force through the cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014 and why, since Ma’s presidential election win in 2012, they have not voted in another Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate. While the nation narrowly avoided tragedy — the treaty would have put Taiwan on the path toward the demobilization of its democracy, which Courtney Donovan Smith wrote about in the Taipei Times in “With the Sunflower movement Taiwan dodged a bullet” — Ma’s political swansong in China, which included fawning dithyrambs