Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

I’ll pursue peace through strength, Lai says

Taipei Times

Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, yesterday said that he would maintain the “status quo” and pursue peace through strength if elected, remaining open to engagement with Beijing under the preconditions of equality and dignity.

Lai pledged to try to engage with China, as dialogue could decrease cross-straits risks, and said peaceful development is in the best interests of both sides and the rest of the world.

“Peace is priceless and war has no winners,” Lai said at a news conference in which he appeared alongside DPP vice presidential candidate Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴).

Supporting hard-won democracy

Jerome Keating

Having spent the past three decades in Taiwan, I have watched firsthand the innumerable obstacles it overcame in shedding the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) one-party state to become a vibrant democracy. Within that time, I also had to listen to a fair share of panda-huggers, useful idiots and parachute journalists commenting on what they felt Taiwan should or should not do vis-a-vis that democracy and its main problem, China.

The struggle of those decades have presented a core reality that cannot be ignored.

First, Taiwan is a democracy and it follows the rule of law to protect that democracy. Because of this, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) gracefully stepped down in 2000. He has been a KMT-appointed president and then Taiwan’s first president to be elected by the people. After him, the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) stepped down after his two four-year terms as president. Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the KMT did the same and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the DPP is to follow suit. Do you see the pattern? All abide by the limits of the Constitution. None tried to cling to power.

Hou, Ko light on energy specifics

Taipei Times Editorial

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.

What killed US-China engagement?

Joseph S. Nye Jr

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.

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