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AllAfrica
2 days ago
- Politics
- AllAfrica
Chinese pressure stresses Taiwan's democracy
Internationally, Taiwan is mostly celebrated for its success in building a liberal political system despite the persistent threat of PRC military attack. 'Taiwan's democracy Is thriving in China's shadow,' we read; 'resilient,' 'robust' and 'vibrant,' 'a triumph.' But Taiwan's political system has been in crisis since the 2024 elections. The two major parties, the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Democratic Progress Party (DPP), accuse each other of threatening Taiwan's hard-won democracy. And that strife is intensified by external danger – a foreign 'black hand,' to borrow a phrase often used by the People's Republic of China (PRC) government. In the elections last year, the independence-leaning DPP maintained the presidency, but lost control of the legislature to a pan-Blue alliance of the KMT and the Taiwan People's Party (TPP, led by former presidential candidate Ko Wen-je, who is now in detention awaiting trial for corruption). Opposition legislators proposed cutting the government's budget. This included reducing funding for defense, despite the fact that the new Trump Administration was calling on Taipei to increase defense spending to justify continued US willingness to intervene in the event of a Chinese attack against Taiwan. KMT legislators also sought to shift the system of checks and balances against the DPP-controlled executive branch in favor of the legislature, including giving the legislature new powers to investigate and prosecute government officials. The KMT argued this was necessary to prevent corrupt behavior in the government, while critics feared the legislature would use these new powers to retaliate against criticism. The changes passed despite complaints by the DPP and tens of thousands of protestors that pan-Blue legislators were rushing the bills into law without adequate transparency. It took Taiwan's Constitutional Court to overrule the changes as in violation of the constitution. The KMT responded by attempting to sideline the Court. Seven of 15 justices finished their terms in October 2024. The KMT got a new law passed that requires a quorum of 10 justices for a valid ruling, then blocked the Lai government's new appointments to the Court. The DDP supported civil society groups in pursuing a campaign to oust KMT legislators through recall votes. The campaign is unprecedented in scope. Up to now, Taiwan has had recall votes for a total of only four legislators in its history, with only one legislator ousted. In July, however, a whopping 24 KMT legislators will face recall voting. Meanwhile, a counter-effort by the KMT to recall 15 DPP legislators appears to have failed. New President Lai Ching-te gets plenty of criticism for the political crisis from Taiwan's pan-Blue opposition, from China, from the US and even from former President Chen Shui-bian, a fellow DPP member. Chen gave a public speech in April, his first in 17 years, arguing that Taiwan's politics have become excessively partisan. Chen said that he disapproves of the recall campaign, that tolerance of contrary opinions is necessary in a democracy, that his party should not stigmatize political opponents as PRC collaborators and that the Lai administration should negotiate with the KMT to allow for effective governance. Chen even suggested that Lai is a dictator who has weaponized Taiwan's judiciary. Lai deserves a share of blame, but not all of it. The single most attention-grabbing anti-China gesture by Lai this year came during his announcement in March of '17 strategies' to counter PRC efforts to influence Taiwan's cross-Strait policy. Lai said the PRC qualifies as a 'hostile overseas force' under Taiwan's Anti-Infiltration Act. That law, passed in 2020 before Lai was president, defines 'hostile overseas forces' as 'countries, political entities or groups' that 'confront us with force' or 'advocate the use of non-peaceful means to endanger the sovereignty of our country.' Since confronting Taiwan with force and threatening to use military violence to prevent Taiwan from formally separating from China are long-standing PRC policies, Lai would seem to be simply stating a fact. Remember also, given the frequent charge that Lai's rhetoric is escalating cross-Strait tensions, that for over two decades the DPP has maintained the position that 'Taiwan is already an independent, sovereign country.' Lai's statements seem neither particularly radical nor ground-breaking. The most valid criticism, perhaps, is that he rejects the idea that accommodating Beijing's sensitivities is necessary to preserve cross-Strait peace. Lai and his advisors believe that the willingness of his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen to take a modestly conciliatory approach toward the PRC only resulted in additional Chinese pressure. Taiwan is a de facto multinational state. Chinese nationalism, which sees Taiwan as part of 'China' (but not necessarily the PRC), contends with Taiwanese nationalism, which sees Taiwan as a separate political entity despite the strong Chinese cultural influence. For the former, Taiwan 'separatism' is treason. To the latter, China is an existential threat. It makes no more sense for PRC officials to call Lai a 'historical criminal' or to castigate him for 'forgetting his roots' than it would make to criticize Americans for not having a monarchy. Democracy is difficult to achieve and difficult to maintain. According to Freedom House, there were no democracies in the world by today's standards as late as the year 1900. (The US and UK were 'electoral autocracies.') Moreover, successful democracies can backslide toward authoritarianism. The quality of democracy in democratic countries has steadily declined over the last two decades. An external military threat makes the task much harder. There is a natural and inescapable tension between upholding civil liberties and ensuring national security when a powerful enemy seeks ways to weaken a state's resilience from within. Taiwan took crucial steps toward democratization in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but that was during the 'million-man swim' era – there was not a realistic prospect of the People's Liberation Army capturing Taiwan by force. The external danger was not strong enough to overwhelm internal demands for political reform. Lai's critics argue that he is using China as an excuse to give his government dictatorial powers. His supporters argue he is taking necessary steps to protect Taiwan from PRC subversion. The important point is that, regardless of the intentions of Lai's actions, they are occurring largely as a result of PRC actions. Even if Lai is acting out of cynical opportunism, China has enabled him. There is no question but that, in addition to exerting concrete military and economic coercion, Beijing is pulling various levers to subvert Taiwan's society toward weakening its resistance to a PRC takeover. Taiwan is an ideal target for United Front operations: a sizeable chunk of the population agrees with the CCP that Taiwan is part of China, and many Taiwanese are reliant on China for their livelihoods, which gives the CPP leverage over them. Some elites in China reportedly are looking to the 1936 Xian Incident as inspiration. In that case, a warlord general aligned with Chiang Kai-shek's KMT government, which was then at war with Mao's Chinese Communist Party forces, arrested Chiang and demanded that he agree to cooperate with the Communists to fight against the invading Japanese in a 'Second United Front' (the first being the Northern Expedition to unify China in 1926—27). The obvious modern parallel to the Xian Incident is China appealing to today's KMT leaders to take action against the DPP government in support of unification. Taiwan's National Security Bureau reports that suspected espionage cases are rising: from 10 in 2022, to 48 in 2023, to 64 in 2024. The Chinese government colludes with organized crime groups on Taiwan, which are traditionally pro-unification. The infamous convicted gang leader Chang An-lo founded the Chinese Unification Promotion Party, repeatedly accused of dispatching gangsters to intimidate opponents of its pro-China agenda. The owner of the China Times Media Group is a Taiwan billionaire who depends heavily on business in China and who says he wants to promote positive views of China. The Group allegedly consults with the PRC government in the shaping of its newspaper and television content presented in Taiwan. China warns other Taiwan businesspeople they must support Beijing's position on Taiwan if they want to keep making money on the Mainland. The PRC government pressures celebrities from Taiwan to make pro-China statements. Chinese sources promote disinformation fed to the Taiwanese public, such as the claim that Taiwan military exercises are actually rehearsals for Taiwan's president and other top officials to flee the island by aircraft in the event a war breaks out. Blue-aligned commentators in Taiwan and PRC propagandists are promoting similar anti-DPP messages. During Taiwan's 2024 election, both groups said a vote for the DPP was a vote for war. Both say Lai is imposing a dictatorship over Taiwan, and both repeat the specific insult of calling Lai's government 'green terror.' The phrase repurposes the term 'white terror,' a reference to the political repression in Taiwan under an authoritarian KMT government during the martial law period. The assassination of 'troublemakers' by the PRC is apparently not off the table. The Czech government recently reported that Chinese diplomats plotted to intentionally crash a vehicle into the car carrying Taiwan's Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim during her visit to Prague last year. It's a valid criticism to charge Lai with imposing his Taiwanese nationalism over the objection of those of his fellow Taiwan citizens who are Chinese nationalists. There is also a risk that Lai's approach makes war more likely, as opposed to an approach that prioritizes peace at the cost of failing to fully satisfy Taiwanese nationalism. Lai may be getting ahead of public opinion, as most Taiwan residents want to retain the status quo of de facto independence but also avoid antagonizing China into taking military action. Beijing, however, deserves the stronger criticism. Its military pressure combined with aggressive efforts to cultivate defeatism effectually supply the rationale for Lai's DPP to pull farther away from Beijing's goal of voluntary unification. Of less concern to Beijing, the growing national security challenge is also straining Taiwan's democracy. Denny Roy is a senior f ellow at the East-West Center.
The Star
28-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Star
Bad roads may lead to bad tourism
When guiding a tour, we frequently engage in lively discussions with our tour members about the significance of observing local customs and progress. We emphasise that a reliable indicator of the civility and modernity of a society lies in the cleanliness and maintenance of its public restrooms. Additionally, the presence of potholes on the asphalt roads serves as a valuable gauge of road safety and infrastructure development – bad or good. I once read that tourists visiting Malaysia should be wary of two things that could be 'deadly': Lightning and thunderstorms that could lead to tragic incidents; and road accidents. Many tourists believe that road safety in Malaysia is not great and may cause serious injury or even death. According to the Global Burden of Disease Report 2024, Malaysia ranks third globally in road accident fatality in 2021, with 23.7 road accident deaths for every 100,000 people. These numbers may have possibly gotten worse by now. A March 21 report in a local newspaper citing official statistics, said that one road user dies every two hours in a road accident in Malaysia. In other words, road accident fatality is a big issue for us. And this is not just about the attitude of road users, it is also about the country's infrastructure itself. Is the quality of our roads far below international standards? I am pretty sure many road users will feel worried about the safety of our urban roads, even in well-developed areas like the Klang Valley. We have gotten so used to drivers not turning on their signal lights when switching lanes, or deliberately stopping by the roadside to create unnecessary congestion. Apart from these, our roads are known to be habitually submerged in floodwaters due to clogged drains after a heavy downpour, resulting in massive traffic standstill. And then there are the many, many potholes. I assume that most of us have helplessly accepted these issues as the norm in Malaysia. But surely, our government should do more. Something substantial needs to be done to permanently solve these problems. At the very least, we need to start working on trying to solve them. Online, you can find lots of discussions on the reason for the poor quality of Malaysian roads. Some say it is not a consequence of technological inadequacy but rather of mismanagement and a lack of supervision. Some are even bold enough to assume that it is a result of cutting corners on the part of contractors. If this last bit is the case, I could only imagine standard materials being substituted with inferior alternatives. Otherwise, how could a newly paved road have so many potholes after merely a few months of use? Please don't blame the rain for this because other countries have adverse weather conditions too, yet their roads remain well-maintained. I happen to come across Taiwan's then-mayor Ko Wen-je on the streets of Taipei several years back. He was heading a technical team studying the morning peak-hour traffic patterns in the capital city. The team discovered that a slightly elevated road shoulder at a road junction that caused turning vehicles to slow down by an average of five seconds, had eventually caused a remarkable 10 to 15-minute traffic hold-up. This discovery prompted the city government's traffic design team to modify the road design to optimise flow efficiency. Notably, even though Taipei had already boasted some of the best road qualities in the region at the time, the city authorities still spared no effort in making traffic flow smoother, as well as the roads safer. In fact, countries around the world are putting a lot of effort into improving the quality of their road networks. In the past few months, I visited many developing cities, including Jakarta (Indonesia), Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Kampala (Uganda) and Windhoek (Namibia). I found that the quality of their roads had improved significantly, especially the surface of the asphalt road which uses European Union-standard black bitumen. This material is highly durable with lasting road markings. I also saw large sprinkler trucks spraying the road surface with water to keep them clean in many cities across the world. This is done so that gravel and garbage do not clog the drains. By comparison, our roads in Kuala Lumpur are said to be among the most unsightly among major capital cities of the world. Even in some of the so-called 'garden' housing estates, the asphalt road surface, road shoulders and back alleys are often in a state of disrepair. Even a freshly paved road could be pockmarked with holes in just a few months' time. So, who should be held accountable for such a problem? Perhaps the relevant authorities should send their people to Vietnam and see how they build and maintain their roads. Excellent infrastructure plays a pivotal role in spearheading a country's economic development, and is a long-term investment to lift the living standards of its people. Most importantly, it also reflects a country's international image and competitiveness. If you have to repair roads over and over again in a short span of time, that could only mean that you are using low-quality materials. A country needs to improve its roads before it can get rich. The implementation of the visa-free entry policy by the Chinese government has provided unprecedented convenience for international travellers. If you happen to visit China, do take a good look at their public roads, railways, urban greening initiatives and other infrastructure. A local guide once told me that a road construction contractor in China can face legal sanctions – even imprisonment – if found guilty of cutting corners, resulting in road accident casualty. High-quality roads not only help improve traffic flow, minimise exhaustion and enhance efficiency, they also effectively reduce the incidence of road mishaps. This is the single most important task for any government. Asphalt roads across Malaysia are just not good enough, in my opinion. The sheer number of potholes on our roads pose tremendous risks to road users. To reduce road accident fatality, we will need to first get our roads properly paved. I hope that soon, something will be done to fix this problem. The views expressed here are entirely the writer's own. Leesan, the globe-trotting traveller who has visited 147 countries and seven continents, enjoys sharing his travel stories and insights. He has also authored six books.
