Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

When former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) published his book The Road to Democracy — Taiwan’s Pursuit of Identity in 1999, he was soon to leave office, and had started to sum up the major achievements of his 12 years as president of the Republic of China (ROC).

Most people are quite aware that the political reform Lee was pushing in those days went beyond the democratization of the nation; he also wanted to realize a new formula for Taiwan: a “ROC Taiwan” or “the ROC on Taiwan.”

If a word is to be identified as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu’s (洪秀柱) campaign keyword, it would probably be “populism.”

Bizarrely for a running candidate, in Hung’s campaign it is not a self-referential keyword, but one she has been constantly using to describe Taiwan’s current political atmosphere, or more precisely, to accuse those who have political beliefs different from hers of being irrational.