This question is for those who can’t vote here – and for those who can.
I’ve added the names of politicians most commonly associated with each party, to make identification easier.
No Greens, no Taiwan Independence, no “none” option? Surely they’re all valid choices?
As you know, Taiwan has a great many registered parties – more than 90, in fact. I had to draw the line somewhere on the choices, so I decided on which parties actually have representatives in the next Legislature.
But everyone should feel free to cast a write-in vote, as it were, of “none of them” or another party, be it the Taiwan Independence Party, the Greens, the New Nation Association, the Communists, or anything else.
Sorry Cranky, your poll’s now inaccurate! I went and voted DPP because it wouldn’t let me simply post the write-in part without selecting an option. My mistake, I should simply have posted my choice here, I guess.
What does that make my vote, anyway? A hanging chad? a pregnant chad?
Here is something interesting I saw about James Soong of the PFP in the Taipei Times. The Editorial is titled Soong is just China’s mouthpiece
By the way, everyone knows that PFP leader Soong has absolutely no relation with the Soong family of CKS time right? No blood relation or anything else, just the same last name only.
quote:
In the early days, Soong was a right-wing anti-communist. Now, however, he tries very hard to please China, constantly making statements that are music to Beijing's ears. Soong repeatedly says he loves Taiwan, using the statement to deceive the people of Taiwan and win over local politicians and factions.After Chen became president, Soong ceased to believe that the ROC’s sovereignty over Taiwan exists independently of China. He concedes that the ROC is a sovereign state, but he also accepts the “one China” principle. He has never referred to the “Taiwan people” as such, but calls them “the general public in Taiwan,” implying that Taiwan is not an independent, sovereign country.
He has also said that, “It is not that the PRC is the only one owning stock in [the sovereignty of] China. The ROC also owns [stock in] China’s sovereignty, although it may hold less stock.”
These statements show that Soong subscribes to the “one China” principle and accepts “one country, two systems.” During the 2000 election, Soong advocated a form of quasi-international relations between the two sides, rather than formal international relations between two sovereign states.
Soong always talks about how much he loves Taiwan. But he also loves to stir up trouble in US-Taiwan relations. During the Chiang Ching-kuo era, the KMT worked hard to push for the enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act to make up for the lack of a formal joint-defense treaty with the US. Now, Soong opposes US arms sales to Taiwan and Taiwan’s entry into Washington’s Theater Missile Defense. Close examination of his ambiguous language reveals how hard he is trying to pander to Beijing and obstruct Taiwan’s path to independence.
After the US accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia, the pro-unification camp in Taiwan danced to Beijing’s tune in holding anti-US demonstrations. After Chinese fighter jets openly provoked an unarmed US surveillance jet over the high seas, the pro-unification camp condemned the US as a “bully,” saying that Taiwan should not serve as a pawn in US hands. They said that Taiwan should not get dragged into the Sino-US struggle. High-ranking Taiwanese military officials attended seminars across the Pacific to study the US military’s strategic thinking. Yet Soong considers the attendance of these military officials at US seminars as offending national dignity.
Soong could be thought of as a sort of unofficial Chinese ambassador for unification propaganda. Having turned from an anti-communist stance to a pro-communist stance, and from pro-US sentiment to anti-US sentiment, he is sparing no effort to obstruct Taiwan’s independence. He wants Taiwan’s sovereignty to collapse.
In his effort to win the presidency, he lies to and deceives the people of Taiwan, pretending that he is a localized politician. He is just bent on handing Taiwan over to China on a silver platter in the name of “one country, two systems.” People inside and outside Taiwan must see Soong for what he is, a two-faced politician. Many people were cheated in the 2000 election. They must never be fooled by Soong again.
Lee Chang-kuei is the president of the Taipei Times and a professor emeritus at National Taiwan University. This is the final article in a four-part series on Taiwan’s political parties.
Yeah, so? The Times runs a “We Hate Soong” editorial practically every day. I got the point about two days after they started selling newspapers a couple of years back.
Unfortunately none of the above. Now that it has come to power the DPP is no longer true to its ideals. If I could vote in Taiwan I would vote for the Greens or the Taiwan Independence Party.
I’ll begin by qualifying my opinion to agree with the law: I’m a foreigner and therefore not allowed to actively work to affect any local election. Good, now then… That being agreed with, I’m for the ‘Pan-Blue’ camp. Any objective glance at Taiwan’s history, AND current social and traditional practices should give a clear indication of just how strongly this society’s Chinese qualities are. It’s an uneducated, naive, or plain old soul in denial who chooses to turn a blind eye and say the residents of Taiwan aren’t culturally and ethnically Chinese. I’m a strong supporter of the ideal of the “R.O.C.”. So, Viva Sinica Democratia Republica! And not just on this Island!
You’re probably just trolling, but…
Yes, culturally and ethnically the Han Chinese here are “Chinese.” The issue is whether they choose to be Chinese politically as well.
Of course he’s trolling. What foreigner in their right mind would ever shy away from supporting full-blown, in-their-face Taiwanese independence? What do you think he is, someone who was born here, lived here all his life and only has an ROC passport if any passport at all? Only those decrepit “have to live here” types would ever be against independence.
Now that’s trolling.
Only those decrepit “have to live here” types would ever be against independence.
Or people who didn’t want to provoke a nasty war. I’m a full supporter of independence for Taiwan, but I wouldn’t support a party (if I could) that openly advocated it.
This poll shows a bit of support for Soong and even the KMT. I think it’s obvious why most foreigners support the DPP (or a smaller party) but I’d be genuinally interested in why they’d support KMT or PFP. Or have Taiwanese or Mainlanders been sneakily voting on this poll?
Bri
The Labour Party (Laodongdang) - Seems to be the only party which isn’t run by and for the American-educated elite. This party seems to be strapped for cash, which has got to be a good sign.
The TSU and DPP appear the only realistic choices. Song, Lian and the other Chinese puppets seem to be more of a hinderance than a help in the formative years of this young democracy, pretty much taking the line “if A bian wants it, then surely it can’t be right”. Anyway, until the Taiwanese and more importantly the Taiwanese politicians learn to fully understand what a democracy actually is, I believe Father Democracy himself, Lee Tung Wei nneds to keep his finger firmly entreched somewhere in the political pie. TSU for me, then the DPP.
The big trick about pro-independence is that you can do anything but declare it in your party manifesto. What makes all the “neo-liberal fashionable PC thinkers” so sure that the TSU and the DPP are the only parties who want full independence? I for one would like to see full independence, but I think the latter 2 parties are more likely to precipitate unification through invasion than any splitting away. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were actually covertly set up by the communist party anticipating that a nexus of uneducated Taiwanese would support them, let them get too big for thier boots, and provide a decent excuse for an PLA invasion, playing the US support for “one China” card to the full.
The idea that ANY party in Taiwan actually wants to be part of a Marxist regime is simply childish. The real issue is more about “the timing of clarifying Taiwan’s status”. Basically the TSU & the DPP want to do it a.s.a.p. and the other 2 parties think it would be more senisble to wait until there are is younger blood in Beijing, and then renegotiate the position. Of course, the DPP & TSU think that what happened to the Soviet Union cannot possibly happen to China, so confrontation is the only solution.
Admittedly the choices of party here in Taiwan are pretty dire, but lets face it, Taiwan has only just emerged from one-party warlordism, so what do you expect?. What I find sinister about the DPP is their undemocratic strategy to cling to power via the unspoken alliance with the TSU. The TSU being the hard-core “independece now” party lead by the genius political astro-physicist Lee Teng Hui (sarcasrm fully intended), and the DPP being the “alternative-to-our-dirty history-party-but-we-won’t-push-for-independece-yet-party” (well, not until the time is right, and then through mutual agreement with the TSU, we can strategically unfurl the R.O.T. flag and retire to our bunkers). In other words, the DPP maintain the pretence of being a China-appeasement by letting the TSU sap-up all the “fisticuffs now” votes. Sorry, but I think its just downright deceitful. And it will all end in tears unless we all wake up.
I’ve closed the poll, because I think it needs to be a snapshot of a time. This thread, however, remains open, so feel free to keep adding.
I’ll open another poll along the same lines around the time of the next major election (the end of this year).
What’s inherently suspicious about an American education? The vast majority of the world’s best universities and institutions are in the U.S. I’d rather see officals in Taiwan with doctorates or masters degrees from Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Berkeley, Stanford, M.I.T., Cornell, etc., than from Binlang U. in Pingdong. I’m not American, but I did get to spend my freshman year in a top-notch American college, along with students from scores of other nations, and we were all the better for it.
I always find it funny when people think that being educated in America makes you a puppet of some sort. They don’t realize that American Universities are filled with about as much anti-American government propaganda (sometimes truths too) as Al jizz-ear-aaahhhhh.
I don’t think the emphasis should be on “American-educated” so much as “elite” and I guess one of the main differences between the unwashed grassroots and this (so-called) elite is that a majority are indeed educated in America or some other supposedly advanced country, or at least have more opportunity for such an education if they so desire it.
Its more a question of the power being in the hands of the few and in the hands of vested interests, but where is it any different? America? UK?