Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, said in an interview published, that, if elected, he would refurbish the nation’s three nuclear power plants to extend their operating life, and have top nuclear safety experts examine the mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant to determine if it could be activated. Nuclear waste disposal would not be a problem, as many other countries have addressed it and the government would develop a long-term disposal solution, he said.

Taiwan People’s Party Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) expressed a similar view in a televised policy presentation last week, but only proposed extending the life of two of the nuclear power stations.

When Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met with US President Joe Biden last fall, some interpreted it as a return to engagement. However, it heralded only a minor detente, not a major change in policy.

The US’ engagement with the People’s Republic of China began with then-US president Richard Nixon in 1972 and was expanded by former US president Bill Clinton. Since then, critics have described US policy as naive, owing to its failure to understand the Chinese Communist Party’s long-term objectives. Underpinning the policy was the prediction, from modernization theory, that economic growth would propel China down the same liberalizing path as other Confucian societies like South Korea and Taiwan.

However, Xi has made China more closed and autocratic.