A ruling by Taiwan’s grand justices against opposition-led reforms to increase legislative oversight is expected to deepen political divides and make life more complicated for William Lai Ching-te’s administration. Opposition leaders described the ruling – that almost all of the proposed reforms were unconstitutional – as a “disgrace” and the “death of judicial integrity”. The … Read more
The remark was a reference to a long-abandoned plan by the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek to “recover” the mainland after his Kuomintang (KMT) forces lost a civil war with the Communists and fled to the island in 1949 to set up an interim government. Before he died in 1975, Chiang had vowed to use Taiwan … Read more
A senior Taiwanese official involved in mainland affairs has resigned as head of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) following a bribery investigation. Cheng Wen-tsan, a former vice-premier of Taiwan who became chairman of the foundation under the Mainland Affairs Council on June 7, announced his resignation on Sunday, saying he did not want to disrupt … Read more
Beijing views the self-governed island as its territory that must be brought under its control, by force if necessary. Most countries, including the United States, do not recognise Taiwan as independent, but are opposed to unilateral change of the cross-strait status quo by force. Cross-strait relations, already strained over the past eight years, deteriorated further … Read more
It was all part of a concerted effort by the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) – which together form the legislative majority – to increase scrutiny of government agencies and officials. Since losing its legislative majority earlier this year, the independence-leaning DPP has faced successive setbacks in the advance … Read more
The mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) released another strongly worded statement on Tuesday evening, saying Lai’s attitude in his inauguration remarks was “extremely rampant” while “his advocacy is even more radical” than before. “The entire speech was filled with antagonism and provocation, lies and deception – the ‘Taiwan independence’ stance is even more radical and … Read more
Tsai, who completed two four-year terms, was on hand to greet various overseas guests. Hsiao Bi-khim, the new vice-president who was also sworn in, shed a few tears as she walked out to wave to supporters after the ceremony. In line with tradition, the United States sent a group of former officials to attend, including … Read more
Many young voters turned instead to the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), led by unsuccessful presidential candidate Ko Wen-je – whose own political career was aided by the movement. This was despite a shift in Ko’s political leanings, from the “pan-green” that denotes independence-leaning parties, towards the more Beijing-friendly stance of the “pan-blue” KMT by the … Read more
“The [routes] will be launched as soon as they are ready,” Zhu Fenglian, a spokeswoman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said on Wednesday. Once launched, mainland planes could more easily stay over the line, a move analysts said would put more strain on the island’s air defences because of the need to distinguish between military … Read more
Shanghai Institute of Taiwan Studies director Ni Yongjie pointed out that 60 per cent of voters wanted to remove the DPP from power “and the future focus of Taiwan’s politics will be in the legislature after the DPP had suffered heavy losses there”. Taiwan election: Lai’s victory risks further tensions with Beijing “Lai only kept … Read more
