Data map: Representative of the Democratic Progressive Party. (Source: ETtoday News Cloud)
As the 2020 “election” approaches, the popularity of current political news on the island continues to rise.
The aftermath of the China Airlines cigarette smuggling case and Chen Mingwen’s NT$3 million cash case has not been settled, and Tsai Ing-wen’s “doctoral degree scandal” is still fermenting.
What's funny is that the host Peng Wenzheng who claimed to "organize a group" to go to London to review Tsai Ing-wen's paper is a famous spokesman for the green camp and has been cheering for the green camp for a long time.
In the seemingly united Green Camp, in fact everyone has their own hidden agenda.
discord
On May 20, 2016, the night Tsai Ing-wen was inaugurated, Peng Wenzheng was the host of the dinner. While drinking and drinking, he might not have thought that one day he would turn against Tsai Ing-wen.
In the past three years, Peng Wenzheng has shown himself as a adherent of the "Taiwanese faction". As the host of "Politics and Economics on People's TV", Peng Wenzheng has long made many "anti-China" speeches in the program that support the pro-Green Party, praise Tsai Ing-wen, and Tsai Ing-wen. He even changed "ancient and modern Chinese and foreign" and "very pertinent" to "ancient and modern Chinese and foreign" and "very Taiwanese" in the program.
However, Tsai Ing-wen does not seem to "appreciate" it. First, they killed off the pro-blue Zhongtian TV station, and then began to "take action against their own comrades," and canceled Peng Wenzheng's political commentary program on the grounds of "false financial reports." During a recording of the program at the end of April, guests witnessed the program being informed without warning that the current program would be the last.
This drama, which was ridiculed by netizens as "dog eats dog", is believed to be the precursor to Peng Wenzheng's attack on Tsai Ing-wen's "essay scandal".
If Peng Wenzheng's attack on Tsai Ing-wen is still a "personal grudge", and on the evening of September 16, veteran green camp politician Annette Annette announced her registration to run for election in 2020, which is a strong dissatisfaction with the Tsai government's performance in power.
Last year, Lu Xiulian, who was ridiculed as "Emerald", broke up with the Democratic Progressive Party because of her candidacy for mayor of Taipei, and left with the words "We have different paths and we don't want to work together."
In fact, before Annette Lu, four former "top leaders" of the Democratic Progressive Party had announced their resignation from the party, including Xu Xinliang, Shi Mingde, Lin Yixiong and Chen Shui-bian. Some are due to elections, some are due to corruption, but more deeply, they all involve political stance.
Lin Yixiong’s reasons for quitting the party revealed the mystery of the DPP’s separation and separation—the political party should promote Taiwan’s political progress rather than compete for political status and power.
Ballots
Someone once said that the so-called elections in Western-style democracy require both the money of the rich and the votes of the poor.
Rich people have money and can provide financial support for elections, but they have fewer votes; poor people have no money, but they have more people and can provide more votes. Under such circumstances, maximizing the support of the rich and obtaining more votes from the poor has naturally become the most important goal of politicians.
After Taiwan's "nine-in-one election" in 2018, Tsai Ing-wen and the Democratic Progressive Party suffered heavy losses. Even the long-term ruling Kaohsiung was captured by the Kuomintang. Tsai himself sadly resigned as chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party.
However, although Tsai Ing-wen is surrounded by negative news and the green camp people are only interested in profit, judging from the polls and support rates, it does not seem to have a major impact on the election of Tsai Ing-wen and the Democratic Progressive Party. The main reasons are as follows.
First, it is difficult to change the traditional fundamentals of Taiwanese politics. Supporters of the two parties' respective fundamentals will not vote for the opponent's camp, no matter how dissatisfied they are with the ruling party. Although the Taiwanese people have long been disgusted with the vicious battle between blue and green, and the middle voter segment has gradually expanded, blue and green each still have about 30% of their base.
Second, Tsai Ing-wen began to adopt the Internet celebrity strategy in election operations, focusing on young voters, and this is exactly what the DPP is good at. Through a series of network operations and cyber army actions, the image of Tsai Ing-wen's so-called "hot Taiwanese girl" who adheres to "Taiwan values" was created, while at the same time repelling intra-party rival Lai Ching-te.
Third, since June this year, a series of incidents in Hong Kong have made Tsai Ing-wen accidentally "pick up a gun". The Democratic Progressive Party took the opportunity to use the "anti-China card" and "fear-China card", causing Tsai Ing-wen's originally sluggish Opinion polls are gradually improving, and cross-strait issues continue to become a tool for the Tsai administration to boost its electoral support.
The problem is that no matter how high-profile the ruling authorities are in publicity, the risk of Taiwan's economic downturn is obvious. People in Taiwan's economic circles generally have doubts about whether the economic growth rate can be maintained at 2% this year. Export data has also declined for seven consecutive months. The employment and salary situation, which are closely related to people's livelihood, are also not optimistic.
In fact, Taiwan’s “nine-in-one elections” at the end of 2018 have clearly expressed Taiwan’s mainstream public opinion, which is to fight for the economy, promote people’s livelihood, and “live a good life.”
Under the pressure of public opinion, the DPP authorities also took some short-term measures. For example, tourists can receive a "night market consumption voucher" of NT$200 per room with proof of accommodation, hoping to stimulate the tourism industry.
Anyone with a discerning eye will understand at a glance that this plan will be implemented from September 16 to December 31, and the deadline is exactly ten days before the 2020 election. It is obviously a disguised "vote buying" for the election.
Judging from the subsequent performance of the DPP administration, although the Tsai administration has always claimed to review its previous work, in actual work its main goal is still to win the 2020 election.
Future
Since August this year, with the cancellation of free travel for mainland tourists to Taiwan, Taiwan’s tourism industry has been hit by a “king-level cold wave.”
Many travel agencies on the island have begun to take unpaid leave. 85% of the existing more than 40,000 Chinese-speaking tour guides are out of business. The related tourism and tourism industry is likely to go bankrupt.
In order to make up for the losses in the tourism industry, the Tsai government not only opened visa exemptions to many Southeast Asian countries under the "New Southbound Policy", but also adopted preferential plans to provide subsidies for group travelers to attract tourists.
previously failed to run for re-election as the mayor of Taichung . After the election, Lin Jialong was promoted to the head of the transportation department. Recently, the "Tourism Bureau" under the transportation department came up with the "International Travel Warm Winter Plan", once again taking the tax dollars of the Taiwanese people. to salvage the losses caused by the Tsai administration’s erroneous cross-strait policies.
's practice of tearing down the eastern wall to repair the western wall has aroused widespread resentment among the people. There are also criticisms from the media and the public: Why can the Tsai administration invest billions of dollars in real money for the U.S. and Taiwan arms purchases, but only see a drop in the bucket on people's livelihood issues?
It can be seen that the people on the island have long been tired of the vicious political struggle and continue to manipulate the consciousness of unification and independence, playing the cards of "fear of China", "hatred of China" and "anti-China", artificially cutting off various ties between the two sides of the strait, which will not only affect the island's economy and People's livelihood conditions are deteriorating, and ultimately political goals may not be achieved.
For the ruling Democratic Progressive Party government, the right way to gain public support is to comply with public opinion, improve people's livelihood, and integrate into the historical trend of one family on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
