Taiwan’s opposition and Beijing
Taipei Times 2023.11.2
    By Paul Lin 林保華

While Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) aspires to stand for election as president of Taiwan, it remains to be seen whether he can collect enough signatures to register as a candidate. In addition, some people involved in Gou’s signature drive have become embroiled in lawsuits.

Meanwhile, negotiations over electoral collaboration between the “blue” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the “white” Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) are proceeding in fits and starts.

Ma Ying-jeou shows true colors
Taipei Times 2023.11.1
    By Paul Lin 林保華

In a meeting with Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫?) on Oct. 16, Human Rights Foundation president Thor Halvorssen said that during a visit to Taiwan in 2010, he was warned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the administration of then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) “not to criticize the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” ahead of the Venezuelan rights advocate’s speech at a conference in Taipei.

However, Halvorssen spoke at length about the CCP’s behavior, with Ma and other officials leaving five minutes after his speech started.

Look to India on Chinese infiltration
Taipei Times 2023.10.16
    By Paul Lin 林保華

On Oct. 3, police in New Delhi raided and searched the residences of several staff members of the NewsClick online news site and detained several of them for interrogation. According to an investigative report published in the New York Times in August under the headline “A global web of Chinese propaganda leads to a US tech mogul,” NewsClick’s main funder is a 69-year-old US citizen named Neville Roy Singham, who established the Chicago-based software and information technology consultancy Thoughtworks and currently lives in Shanghai.

NewsClick, founded in 2009, defines itself as an independent news medium focusing on “social justice” that speaks out for “oppressed communities.” However, the New York Times report says NewsClick’s reports are full of Chinese government talking points such as that “China’s history continues to inspire the working classes.” Many organizations, from the Massachusetts-based think tank Tricontinental and a South African political party to a Brazilian news organization, have traces of Singham’s funding with the aim of spreading China’s “grand external propaganda.” According to the report, Singham-funded media have used funding from the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Shanghai Municipal Committee to publish videos on YouTube and “spread China’s voice to the world.”

Cracks in China’s debt-ridden economy

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 2023.8.21

On Aug. 3, CK Asset Holdings Ltd, the property flagship of Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠), launched presales at 15 percent less than the market price for uncompleted condominiums in the Yau Tong area that were part of its project dubbed the Coast Line II. It caused a shock in the market and people wanted to know what was happening.

At that time, rumors spread that some Chinese real-estate companies might go bankrupt, but the Chinese government downplayed this as a sales tactic. It turned out that Country Garden Holdings Co, another giant Chinese real-estate developer, was in trouble. This shows how sharp Li’s business sense is.

Economy up despite trade woes with China

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 2023.7.1

Taiwan has moved up to sixth place among 64 economies in the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development’s World Competitiveness Yearbook after improving steadily over the past five years. It surpassed Hong Kong on the list for the first time.

In 2018 and 2019, Hong Kong was second after Singapore and the US. However, after protests against a Beijing-backed extradition bill, Hong Kong gradually slipped in the rankings. The passage of the National Security Law reinforced this trend. In 2018 and 2019, Taiwan was ranked behind China, but since 2020, Taiwan has been ahead.

Hou You-yi receives tepid KMT support

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times  2023.6.11

Things are not going too well for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜). Amid grumblings over the party’s shoddy treatment of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘), who also sought the KMT nomination, Hou sought out former National Taiwan University (NTU) president Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔), but Kuan said he had no interest in politics, ending speculation of a Hou-Kuan ticket.

Hou then turned to Ko Chih-en (柯志恩), who heads the National Policy Foundation, a KMT think tank. Ko turned down the offer. Former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) declined to act as Hou’s campaign director.

The KMT is at critical crossroads

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 2023.5.31

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has nominated New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) as its candidate for next year’s presidential election. The selection process was replete with controversy, mainly because the KMT has never stipulated a set of protocols for its presidential nominations. Yet, viewed from a historical perspective, the KMT has improved to some extent.

There are two fundamental differences between the KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP):

Home Editorials

Mon, May 01, 2023 page8

    A Chinese occupation would harm the world
        By Paul Lin 林保華

    “The one who captures Taiwan, conquers the world,” a person in the tech industry recently wrote in an online post. I completely agree with this statement for a few reasons.

Allies unite against communism

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 2023.3.30

Czech Chamber of Deputies Speaker Marketa Pekarova Adamova arrived in Taiwan on Saturday. The visit not only showcases the rising status of Taiwan in the international community, but the support and friendship between Taiwan and the Czech Republic.

Adamova quoted a popular phrase during the Prague Spring in 1968: “I guarantee you we are with you now, we will continue to be with you and under any circumstances we are in the same boat together. Because you are with us, so we are with you.”

Where ex-generals’ loyalties lie

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 230314

A Feb. 28 article in Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun, or Nikkei, alleging that many Taiwanese retired military officers had served as spies for China has sparked fervent debate in the nation, in particular drawing a furious reaction from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator-at-large Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), a retired lieutenant general. The article had obviously touched a nerve.

To protest the article, Wu proposed that Taiwan and Japan stop all military exchanges. Japan is one of the most important members of the US’ Indo-Pacific Strategy; suspending Taipei’s military exchanges with Tokyo would be to withhold participation in this strategy altogether.

Oppose the CCP, but do not mention China itself

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 2022.12.29

Former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) once used the slogan: “We shall defeat communism; we shall build the nation.” As time passed, a new slogan — “oppose communism, safeguard Taiwan” — emerged, lowering the bar of countering communism. By taking out nation-building, the only goal left was to “oppose communism” by protecting Taiwan, a value the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) does not dare to mention and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) seems uncertain about. What was the reason for the change?

“Oppose China, safeguard Taiwan” might prove more popular with the public. Changing “communism” to “China” would make more sense, as communism has become a dirty word around the globe, a synonym for autocracy, barbarism and brutality. This is why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has tried to separate the idea that the CCP equals China.

Xi Jinping sees Taiwan as vital to his legacy

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 2022.11.1

The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was a farce played out before the eyes of the world. In 1956, the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union led to the country’s rightward shift and its eventual collapse.

As the CCP’s 20th National Congress accelerated its leftward shift, what changes will this bring?

High tech and China decoupling

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 2022.10.19

On Oct. 7, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security added 31 Chinese companies and research institutes — including China’s largest memorychip foundry Yangtze Memory Technologies Co — to its Unverified List of possibly noncompliant entities, while also imposing new controls on high-tech exports to China.

Whether by design or coincidence, this announcement was made at the end of China’s National Day holiday and on the eve of the Oct. 9 opening of the seventh plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which in turn was a prelude to the party’s 20th National Congress, which opened on Sunday.

China paved way for Biden’s pledge

    By Paul Lin 林保華

Taipei Times  20220530

In a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on Monday last week, US President Joe Biden was asked: “Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?” Biden was unequivocal in his answer: “Yes... That’s the commitment we made.”

The remarks came as a surprise departure from decades of US policy, although a White House official later offered a message to the media: “As the president said, our policy has not changed.”

Beijing shirks HK responsibility

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipai Times  2022.3.30

During last year’s celebrations in Beijing to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) boasted that Beijing had gained full administrative control over Hong Kong and said this would “guarantee the territory’s long-term stability and prosperity.”

Predictably, at the postponed “patriots only” legislative election in December last year, pro-Beijing flunkies wiped the board, taking every available seat. Xi had chalked up a major win: “anti-China elements” would no longer cause chaos in Hong Kong and “obstruct the territory’s transition to stability and prosperity.”

DPP must not become too confident

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taiei Times 2022.1.20

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) threw all of its weight behind last month’s four referendums — all of which it initiated — as well as a by-election in Taichung’s second electoral district and a recall vote for independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) in Taipei’s fifth electoral district, both on Jan. 9.

In a key test of public opinion, the KMT lost everything: each referendum, the recall vote and the by-election.

US-China ties have Taiwan at core
Taipei Times 2011.11.10
    By Paul Lin 林保華

On Oct. 31, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rome. Chinese state media and netizens dined out on a report that Blinken had entered the hotel where the two met through a side entrance. This was interpreted as the US being in an inferior position and subservient to China.

Reports of the meeting indicate that its main purpose was to discuss issues relating to Taiwan. Wang reportedly warned Blinken that the “Taiwan problem” has the potential to topple the US-China relationship and that a top priority for both sides is to make political preparations for the next stage of the China-US relationship.

Honesty can aid transitional justice

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 2021.10.24

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書) admitted he had been an informant for the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) authoritarian regime when he was a student and has announced that he is to resign from the DPP.

This decision should be affirmed, but hopefully he can also tell the whole truth to show his determination to distance himself from his past. He could use the opportunity to promote the implementation of transitional justice.

Will Taiwanese defend themselves?

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times 2021.8.31

The withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan resulted in the Taliban romping to victory in a blitzkrieg-style campaign, knocking over the Afghan army like skittles. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wasted no time in milking the fall of Kabul for all it was worth.

Taiwan’s KMT-supporting pan-blue media immediately began to sow discord about the Taiwan-US relationship. No matter how many times the pan-blue camp professes to be pro-US, at critical junctures, it always reveals its true colors.