Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Chu starts by forming united front with China

Tzou Jiing-wen 鄒景雯

In a close contest, former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) on Saturday last week was elected Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman for a second time. Many people wonder what the result of this internecine KMT power struggle means for Taiwanese politics — if Chu fails to get a firm grasp of the situation, he might inadvertently help the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) secure a third term in office.

The day after the election, Chu received a congratulatory telegram from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Chu replied, thanking Xi as the two return to acknowledging the so-called “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence. This shows that when Chu called his rival for the chairperson seat, Sun Yat-sen School president Chang Ya-chung (張亞中), a “red unification” candidate who would turn the KMT into a “little red” cheerleader for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), it was nothing more than internal conflict during a particularly acrimonious party leadership campaign — perhaps Chu was also trying to get Beijing’s attention.

Xi could create the perfect storm

Simon Tang 湯先鈍

In an article published in Foreign Policy magazine titled “China is a declining power — and that’s the problem,” two highly reputable academics use “power transition theory” (PTT) as a base for their arguments.

PTT was founded by my adviser at Claremont Graduate University, Jacek Kugler, and his mentor, A.F.K. Organski.

PTT believes that the unipolar world dominated by a single hegemony (from 1990 to last year) is the most stable setup in international relations compared with the bipolar (US-Soviet Union) or multipolar (Europe before World War II) world.

Counting Taiwanese in the US

Taipei Times Editorial

Many Taiwanese were outraged in late April when the Pew Research Center demographic report on Asians in the US categorized them as part of the larger Chinese population. However, in a rare victory against China’s increasingly aggressive campaign to erase Taiwanese identity from the international sphere, the Washington-based think tank rectified the report earlier this month to show separate numbers for people who identify as originating in the two countries.

There is still a row in the chart that shows combined Chinese and Taiwanese totals, and the text still lumps the two peoples as “Chinese-origin Asians.” Nonetheless, the change is a positive development, as Pew responded to the backlash and further released a report by senior demographer Jeffrey Passel explaining the complexities behind counting Taiwanese in the US.

Reviving National Democracy Hall

Jerome Keating

Taiwan will always face new challenges within and without as its democracy develops. Yet while new issues appear and must be resolved, one of the most pressing problems from its past remains, namely: What to do with the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, or as it is sarcastically called “The Tomb of the Dead Dictator.”

A start on this problem had been made during the presidency of Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). In 2007, the hall was renamed National Taiwan Democracy Hall and the surrounding area named Liberty Square.

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