Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Opposition parties in the legislature often criticize the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), calling it a “US pawn.”

Great powers are flexing their muscles, with democracies and resurgent communist states heading toward a collision. Minor countries and powers including Taiwan would have to choose a path for survival. The question is, should Taiwan put its lot in with one camp or the other, or should it attempt to strike out on its own?

If great powers did not have dreams of domination or territorial ambitions over their neighbors, smaller countries could live without fear. Taiwan would not need to accept US domination, or China’s.

We have now moved into the new year, and Taiwan has mounting challenges both external and internal. Evidently, even with the fresh start of the opening days of 2025, little is going to change.

According to a new poll, President William Lai’s (賴清德) approval rating is more than 50 percent, and the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) approval rating is evenly matched with that of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) opposition.

Despite this, the KMT and the TPP are saying that together they represent the majority of the public, and in the Legislative Yuan continue to force through votes, pass legislation aimed at accumulating more power for the legislature, and propose controversial legislation, prioritizing this over legislation designed to help ordinary Taiwanese or the government’s annual budget.