Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) recently reiterated that he is “deep-green at heart,” a remark that pro-Taiwan supporters found dubious or even held in disdain.

The “deep green” faction is a pro-indigenous force that promotes Taiwanese sovereignty by putting Taiwan’s interests first. That Ko had the audacity to make a series of “anti-indigenous” moves, such as saying the “two sides of the Strait are one family,” condemning the idea of countering China and safeguarding Taiwan, proposing to revive plans of a cross-strait service trade agreement with China and partnering with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for his own political interests, have shown that he is not as “deep green” as he claims to be, for these were all intolerable actions in the eyes of pro-Taiwan supporters.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) on Tuesday called on democracies to cooperate on countering China’s cognitive warfare efforts.

Speaking at a policy forum held by Taipei-based think tank Doublethink Lab and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, Wu said that China was “attempting to create social division and mistrust to undermine [Taiwan’s] democratic system.”

Shiori Kanno, a former parliamentary member of the Japanese Diet, also spoke at the event, saying that the issue of Taiwan’s security had been receiving greater attention in Japan and argued that a conflict in the Taiwan Strait would impact Japan’s economy.