"The current Taiwan is very much like the Titanic, which has already hit an iceberg and is about to sink. However, the captain is still ordering the first mate and crew to gang up on other passengers and bully them." This is the opening remark of Yang Tu's article today, a writer from Taiwan. He severely criticized Chen Chien-jen for being selfish and self-interested. While Trump initiated the trade war and Taiwan suffered severe damage, he was still instigating internal struggles and promoting large-scale dismissals. Taiwan has reached its most dangerous edge. Below is the full text (with slight editing) ——

Nowadays, Taiwan is very much like the Titanic, which has already hit an iceberg and is about to sink. However, the captain is still ordering the first mate and crew to gang up on other passengers and bully them.

As the tariff world war launched by Trump has reached this point, how many orders have been canceled in the Taiwanese industrial sector, and how severe will unemployment be in the future? A possible economic depression may occur in Taiwan, but this leading captain, Chen Chien-jen, does not think about uniting people who share the same fate on the same ship to overcome difficulties together. Instead, he is still promoting large-scale dismissals, using divisive methods to split the people into two halves. Then he mobilizes green camp supporters across the country to go around and gather signatures. This truly fits the folk saying I heard during my recent visit home at a temple, "Ducks in mid-July, unaware of life or death."

The large-scale dismissal is actually an extremely absurd thing. The Legislative Yuan supervising the government is its statutory duty. Cutting budgets to keep an eye on people's money is part of their responsibility. If the legislators do not supervise, allowing any budget to be arbitrarily listed and providing unconditional protection for the government, whether they are members of the ruling party or the opposition party, they are derelict in their duties.

When the Kuomintang was in power, the "Executive Yuan" would also send personnel from various departments to communicate with Democratic Progressive Party legislators to try to reduce budget cuts. They would explain which budgets were correct and necessary to the legislators, asking them not to cut them. Sometimes, to give legislators the face of "keeping an eye on people's money," both sides would negotiate which items could be adjusted to allow legislators to explain to voters.

This is the normal state of negotiation in the Legislative Yuan. Chen Chien-jen is certainly familiar with this. He knows very well that the budget cuts made by the "Executive Yuan" this year are not significant, and the total budget is even the highest in history. However, the "Executive Yuan" has launched various publicity campaigns to distort the budget-cutting items, making it seem as if the Legislative Yuan is cutting the tea allowance of the Control Yuan, subsidies of the Ministry of Culture, coffee in the press room of the Executive Yuan, farmers' subsidies, etc. Any discerning person can see that this is all nonsense.

To put it bluntly, the ultimate goal is to use the budget for struggle and promote large-scale dismissals. As for the purpose of large-scale dismissals, it is nothing more than centralizing power and returning to the situation where one party monopolizes administrative and legislative power.

Chen Chien-jen's administration is using public resources and government budgets to attempt to dismiss legislators with a popular mandate. This is fundamentally undemocratic behavior.

Moreover, Trump's global tariff war has caused widespread lamentation among industries across Taiwan. Export-oriented Taiwanese enterprises have been directly affected. Each region of Taiwan faces its own industrial challenges. Chen Chien-jen's administration should gather local governments from various regions to have substantive discussions based on the characteristics of local industries, identify the problems encountered, and find the core priorities for negotiations with the US. Only then will there be a solid local foundation to prepare for negotiations in the US.

Unfortunately, Chen's administration is still promoting dismissals. Clearly, Taiwan's economy is small, like the Titanic heading straight for Trump's big iceberg, seemingly destined for destruction. Yet the helmsman is still causing internal divisions, splitting the people into two camps, and attacking opposition legislators. Moreover, the attacks are not based on concrete evidence or individuals but involve blanket accusations, labeling all opposition parties as accomplices of the mainland. This approach is no different from the tactics used in South Korea when imposing martial law under Yoon Suk-yeol.

To be honest, if all opposition legislators in Taiwan are considered accomplices of the mainland, does this mean that more than half of the people in Taiwan support the mainland? Does this imply that Taiwan has been infiltrated by half? Such a claim is absurd and ridiculous beyond belief.

Yes, facing Trump's big iceberg, Taiwan is like the Titanic, the ship is sinking. Crew members and passengers are still fighting each other in groups. With such a selfish leader and such an ignorant guide, Taiwan, oh Taiwan, can only sing softly "Ah! Vast future, continuous rain in the harbor at night."

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1829014084747305/

Disclaimer: The article represents the author's personal views.