Democracies across the world are alarmed by Beijing’s growing assertiveness, especially in light of Taiwan’s presidential election on Saturday. While threats from China have increased, demands for socioeconomic reforms have played a more significant role than in previous elections. As the largest foreign investor in Taiwan facing Chinese threats, Europe has reason to worry about its interests in the country. By engaging Europe on these issues, Taiwan can improve its understanding of the bloc’s diversity and complexity. Rather than allowing China to dominate — and constrain — the discourse, Europe and Taiwan should be coming together about their shared domestic concerns.

2024 Elections: TPP supporters protest media outside NCCBy Shelley Shan / Staff reporterMore than 500 Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) supporters last night gathered outside the National Communications Commission’s (NCC) offices in Taipei to protest the regulator’s inaction on SET TV’s alleged illegal investment in the multiple systems operator Homeplus Digital. Protesters also accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of intervening in the establishment of the Mirror News channel. The TPP earlier said that television news channels were aligned with the DPP or the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and are used to attack political rivals. Protest slogans are projected on the National Communications Commission building in Taipei during a demonstration last night. Taiwan People’s Party presidential candidate Ko Wen-je, front right on vehicle, addresses supporters as his campaign motorcade passes through Tainan yesterday.

Supporting hard-won democracyBy Jerome KeatingHaving spent the past three decades in Taiwan, I have watched firsthand the innumerable obstacles it overcame in shedding the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) one-party state to become a vibrant democracy. First, Taiwan is a democracy and it follows the rule of law to protect that democracy. I propose three basic questions as a type of litmus test:First, would you go to war to defend Taiwan’s democracy? Its presidential candidate, Vice President William Lai (賴清德), has experience as the nation’s vice president, as a legislator and a mayor. Those are good credentials and his stance on Taiwan’s democracy is evident enough.

TPP accuses TV channels of biased reportingBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporter, with CNAThe campaign office of Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday accused television news channels of being associated with either the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) or Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and that they have become a weapon to attack political rivals. Taiwan People’s Party legislator-at-large candidates Huang Kuo-chang, left, and Vivian Huang, right, attend a news conference held by the party in New Taipei City yesterday. On Friday, SET News spent 22 minutes, 31 seconds reporting on negative news about the DPP’s political rivals, Huang said. He said that the channels have breached Article 46 of the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法) — which stipulates that TV channels should treat all the candidates in a fair and just manner. TPP legislator-at-large candidate Vivian Huang (黃珊珊), Ko’s campaign manager, said many news stories about the TPP had been blocked by the media outlet’s editors.

2 in chip capacityStaff writer, with CNATaiwan is forecast to retain its position as having the second-largest semiconductor capacity in the world this year, with production capacity set to increase more than 4 percent from a year earlier, the global semiconductor trade association SEMI said on Thursday. SEMI’s latest World Fab Forecast report said global semiconductor capacity is expected to rise 6.4 percent this year and surpass 30 million wafers per month to a new high after rising 5.5 percent to 29.6 wafers per month last year. South Korea’s capacity is expected to rise 5.4 percent from a year earlier to 5.10 million wafers per month, giving it the third-largest capacity in the world, the report said. Japan is expected to boost its output by about 2 percent from a year earlier to 4.70 million units per month, taking the No. As for the memorychip segment, DRAM suppliers are expected to raise capacity by 2 percent to 3.8 million wafers per month and an additional 5 percent to 4 million units per month next year, it said.

2024 Elections: Han was pressured: KoBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporter, with CNAFormer Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) must have been under party pressure in a call for his supporters to not vote for Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), Ko said yesterday, adding that was not what Han had told him in private. Photo: CNA“Ko Wen-je’s election campaign is like an air gun shot, making a loud noise, but he will not win. So dear Ko supporters, please switch your votes” [to the KMT], Han said. In response to Han’s remark, Ko yesterday said that Han is a KMT party member and also at the top of its legislator-at-large candidate list. “It is completely different than what he [Han] told me in private,” Ko said, adding that people subconsciously reveal their real thoughts in their speech, so when Han said it is not an issue of whether Ko is suitable for the presidency, what Han really means is that Ko is better than Hou.

EDITORIAL: The waning power of DragonsThe number of newborns each year in Taiwan has become a not-so-happy reminder that the nation’s birthrate is declining. Taiwan had the most births in the 1976 Year of the Dragon, with 425,125 newborns, government data showed. A glimpse of the number of newborns on New Year’s Day suggests that the number of Dragon babies might hit a new low unless the birthrate spikes unexpectedly. The population was 23,415,008 as of November last year, 181,415 more than the same period in 2022, ministry data showed. Are other factors, such as cultural values and social pressures placed on women, playing a bigger role in driving down the rate in Taiwan?

Ma, an independent legislative candidate in Taoyuan, is also the first candidate to be put under pre-trial detention in the run-up to Saturday’s presidential and legislative elections. The TPP yesterday afternoon issued a statement saying that as Ma is suspected of contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and has been detained, the party’s central review committee determined to she had contravened the party’s ethics rules and seriously damaged the party’s reputation, so it expelled her. Taiwan People’s Party Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je speaks to reporters in Taichung yesterday. "Ma Chih-wei loves Taiwan and is an innocent young person," the statement said. As Ko previously made a remark that “China wants me to run for president,” he should disclose the political donations that the TPP received as soon as possible, Wang said.

A decade on, Ko is now calling for the resurrection of the trade pact. Rex How, right, speaks at the launch of the English-language version of his book Taiwan Unbound: A New Chapter, at the Mayor’s Residence Art Salon in Taipei. Highlighting Ko’s use of YouTubers and social media influencers, How says that feedback on trending topics among youngsters helps determine Ko’s talking points. “They don’t seem to be interested in learning about policies that affect Taiwan,” Yang says. “The seeds and, in effect the cost, were planted 10 years ago [with the post-trade pact political climate],” How says.

The trap young people should avoidBy Jane Ywe-hwan 張月環Right from the very outset of this election campaign season, it has seemed that young voters have been largely supporting Taiwan People’s Party Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲). The young electorate seldom watch political talk shows; instead, they make use of social media platforms including Line and TikTok to obtain information. However, it de-emphasizes the efforts that the ruling party had made during the COVID-19 pandemic and ignores the suppression of Taiwan by the Chinese Communist Party. The simplification of issues is attractive to young people, but it also encourages wrong judgements on what is actually happening. Young people easily characterize political controversies as the blue-green division, but the government should take more careful action to deal with the complicated situation in Taiwan.

Ma, an independent, is also the first legislative candidate to be put under pretrial detention in this election cycle, with only seven days to go before the vote on Saturday next week. Ma, who visited China several times last year, allegedly received tether cryptocurrency in addition to US dollars for her campaign. Independent legislative candidate Ma Chih-wei picks a number for the election at a Central Election Commission office in Taoyuan on Dec. 20 last year. They questioned eight people, including Ma and TPP Taoyuan chapter head Huang Cheng-chun (黃成峻). The bureau’s national security section said that it is a serious case of Chinese Communist Party election interference through candidate funding.

Taiwan Strait crisis still a top US threatCOUNCIL FINDING: If Beijing acts, it might threaten the US homeland, a defense treaty ally or a strategic interest, and trigger a military response, a think tank saidBy Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporterA potential crisis across the Taiwan Strait on Thursday was rated as one of the top threats to US interests for the fourth consecutive year by the US Council on Foreign Relations. Photo: ReutersThe likelihood of such a crisis is “moderate,” but its effect on US interests would be “high,” the report said. The annual report rated possible conflicts between the US and China over Taiwan as a “Tier II (Medium Priority)” threat for its assessments in 2019 and 2020. As tensions between Washington and Beijing intensified and the frequency of Chinese military activities near Taiwan increased, the situation was classified as a “Tier I” risk for the first time in 2021. The survey was conducted in November last year, receiving about 500 responses from US government officials, foreign policy experts and academics, it said.

The nuclear phantom from 2011By Huang Wei-ping 黃惟冰Japan is reeling from the powerful earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture on Monday afternoon. Apart from tsunami warnings, the thing people most worried about when the quake hit was whether nearby nuclear power plants were safe. After all, if another disaster like the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant were to reoccur, the results would be unthinkable. In other words, the natural disasters that threaten Japanese nuclear power plants are equally applicable to Taiwan. Taipei and New Taipei City have a combined population of nearly 10 million, most of whom live less than 30km from the two nuclear power plants located on the north coast.

Iran vows revenge after attack killing about 100 peopleReuters, DUBAI, United Arab EmiratesIranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber vowed revenge yesterday for explosions that killed about 100 people at a ceremony to commemorate top commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone in 2020 in Iraq. Photo: EPA-EFEA senior official in US President Joe Biden’s administration said the blasts appeared to represent “a terrorist attack” of the type carried out by Islamic State militants. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi condemned the “heinous and inhumane crime,” and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed revenge for the twin bombings. Iran’s Red Crescent rescuers tended to wounded people at the ceremony, where hundreds had gathered to mark the anniversary of Soleimani’s killing. In 2022, Sunni militant group the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a Shiite shrine in Iran killed 15 people.

2024 Elections: TPP’s Wu says missing financial info ‘being handled’By Jonathan Chin / Staff writer, with CNATaiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator and vice presidential candidate Cynthia Wu (吳欣盈) yesterday reiterated that the information missing from her financial disclosure statement is being dealt with, with the election just days away. She made the remark on the sidelines of a campaign rally in Kaohsiung when asked about gaps in the most recent version of her financial information published on the Central Election Commission’s Web site, which is dated Monday last week. Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator and vice presidential candidate Cynthia Wu, left, takes a selfie with supporters in Pingtung County yesterday. Separately, TPP Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) traveled through Taoyuan in a motorcade that stopped at temples and toured urban districts. “If that were true, the US would not be constantly questioning your [Lai’s] stance,” Ko said.