In the past 2023, Taiwanese people are full of sadness and anxiety, and of course, they are full of expectations for 2024. The Taiwanese 七连仔 (nà) I wrote is:
In 2023 in Taiwan, it is full of sadness and uneasiness, and there is no shortage of big corrupt officials.
2023 is over in the blink of an eye. Although the years are like this, year after year, year after year. But Taiwan's changes in 2023 have indeed filled Taiwanese people with sadness, anger and unease. In particular, it is time for the election of regional leaders for a four-year term, and on January 24, 2024, a new government will be elected. The feelings of the people of Taiwan who are full of expectations and are afraid of being hurt can be explained in four words: the first is "lack", which is lacking, the second is "fear", the fear of fear, the third is "change", the change of change, and the fourth is "hope", the hope of expectation.
The first, "missing". Taiwan's "United Daily News" votes for the word of the year every year, and the word of the year in 2023 is called "missing". Because the people of Taiwan have experienced various "shortages" this year, such as "lack of vaccines", "lack of masks", "lack of quick screening", "lack of pork", "lack of eggs" and so on. What did the Cai authorities do? When they lacked something, they seized this gap and let her people make a lot of money and make a profit. Let some companies with no experience and no capital actually get import certificates of up to hundreds of millions of orders and start exclusive trading.
You want to make money, and the Taiwanese are also helpless. But the eggs you imported turned out to be expired "bad eggs", and for fear of being recognized, you actually broke up the eggs and sold them to schools, restaurants...... As a result, it was discovered that "good and bad guys" would become bastards when they were mixed up! No wonder the word "lacking" was used by the people of Taiwan to vote for the first place. The second place in the vote was the "egg", and the people of Taiwan hated this egg to the bottom. The rulers of the Taiwan authorities lack ability, responsibility, integrity, youth, and shame...... Therefore, the people of Taiwan say that Taiwan lacks everything, that is, there is no shortage of corrupt officials.
The second is "fear". The people of Taiwan know very well that politicians' shouting for "reunification" and "independence" is all wishful thinking, because how can Taiwan decide its own destiny. It is clear to everyone that the United States wants to obstruct cross-strait reunification.
The United States has five methods: The first is "peace independence," which gradually achieves "independence" in peace; the second is "peace and separation," which is to slowly divide the two sides of the strait and "de-Sinicize" in the course of peace; and then it uses "force attrition" to train Taiwan to fight against the mainland and deplete China's national strength by means of attrition by force. There is also an exchange, which is to "make you unified", but to exchange interests. The Americans know that the mainland has the determination and confidence to reunify, so they feel that it is impossible to "become independent in peace" and "separate in peace." But you asked the United States to give up, and it was not reconciled, because it would mean giving up from the "first island chain" to the "second island chain". During Hillary's reign, she tried in vain to "reunify you" with $1 trillion, but the United States felt that Chinese mainland gave $1 trillion and would soon earn it back, and Chinese mainland would become stronger and stronger, so it did not want to exchange. At this time, it decided to use force and wanted to train Taiwan to fight with the mainland.
Elbridge Colby of the U.S. Defense Strategy Think Tank has published a new book, "Negative Strategy," arguing that China's advance is unstoppable, so it must contain China, and it is necessary and worthwhile to provoke a limited war in the Taiwan region. You should never think that this book is the work of one person, and this book has now become a "manual of warfare" for the United States in cross-strait relations, and this is what we should pay special attention to. In other words, destroying Taiwan, severely hitting Chinese mainland, and making the United States great again has become a bipartisan consensus in the United States.
These absurd remarks have finally alerted the Taiwan people to the fact that the "theory of Taiwan's destruction" is not just talking, but has already begun to take this step, and what is even more terrifying is that the Tsai authorities have fully cooperated with the United States. Just days before the end of 2022, Tsai Ing-wen announced that she would extend her military service from four months to one year from January 1, 2024. This incident directly became the focus of discussion in the streets and alleys of the entire New Calendar Year and Lunar Year at that time, all talking about why military service should be extended and whether there would be war......
At the same time, Taiwan's military even went so far as to plan to relocate the "Hengshan Command Post" to the snow-capped mountain tunnel in wartime and to hide chariots and artillery from civilian use. In fact, it is to let the civilian people act as the human shields of the military. This is in line with the book "Negative Strategy" that "the death of the people of Taiwan can provoke the anger of people around the world who do not know the truth against Chinese mainland, and then impose sanctions on China." Once the United States imposes economic sanctions on Chinese mainland, it will be the first to use the excuse of "protecting" Taiwan and freezing Taiwan's $500 billion or $500 billion, which is called "protecting your money." Immediately afterward, the United States will confiscate Chinese mainland's money. Everyone must be clear about the purpose of the United States, which first consumes your economic strength, and then consumes your national strength.
In January 2023, the United States announced the sale of $180 million worth of "minelaying systems" to Taiwan. The Taiwanese also panicked. Then, in mid-February, Garland Nixon, a radio host in Washington, D.C., posted that a White House insider revealed that when asked what was more disastrous than the "neoconservative Ukraine plan," Biden actually replied, "You'll know when you see our plan to 'destroy Taiwan.'" It means that the U.S. plan to destroy Taiwan is more ruthless and poisonous than the consumption of the Ukrainian people, so of course the Taiwanese people are afraid and angry. A few months later, Biden was asked again, "If there is an armed conflict between the two sides of the strait, Taiwan will become a ruin, how will the people of Taiwan survive and live?" Biden came in and said, don't worry, there will be no one at that time.
So this thing is not made on our side, it is said by you, the President of the United States. Of course, Taiwan is blocking these news, but no matter how you block it, the Taiwanese people will still get it from various channels. So today's second word, the second feeling of Taiwanese is fear.
The third word I think is "change". On January 13, 2024, Taiwan's quadrennial regional leadership election is an opportunity for political change. Because the Taiwan people resented the Tsai authorities for their incompetence in governance, corruption, and lack of corrupt officials, and because they also resented the Taiwan authorities for "leaning on the United States to seek independence," relying on the United States to resist reunification, and forcing the Taiwanese to be cannon fodder, the Tsai authorities did not hesitate to make Taiwan people resentful, so a call called for "removing the DPP from the shelves" arose.
Of course, Taiwan will change when the DPP is removed, but the DPP is now in power and has power and advantages. Everyone originally pinned their hopes on the blue and white combination, but the blue and white combination broke the game. Although the blue and white politicians let the blue and white break the situation because of their selfishness, the determination of the blue and white supporters to remove the DPP has not been broken. Therefore, in the end, there will be a waiver of the bail and the desire of the blue and white to remove the DPP from the shelves. Of course, this is very mysterious, there must be the right polls, and everyone must make the right choice.
Then the fourth word I mentioned is "hope". No matter how painful, afraid, and desperate people are, they still have to hold on to hope, so what are the Taiwanese afraid of? In the 13 January election, it is difficult to say whether the blue and white supporters will be able to abandon the guarantee and successfully achieve the wish of Lai Ching-te not to be elected and remove the DPP. But you must know that even if Lai Qingde was not careful enough to give up the insurance, let Lai Qingde benefit and win by luck, but Lai Ruo's election rate is different from less than half of the votes.
You must know that Lai's vote rate is less than half, and there is a high probability that the DPP will never be able to exceed half in the election of the DPP, so the DPP's speaker will definitely be removed from the shelves at this time. At that time, Lai Qingde cannot be as arrogant as Tsai Ing-wen when she won more than half of the votes, and she controlled more than half of the parliament and acted recklessly. Then the people's expectations and the calls for peace, exchanges, development, and cooperation between the two sides of the strait cannot be ignored.
In 2023, in the cross-strait annual Chinese character selection jointly organized by relevant institutions on both sides of the strait, the vast majority of votes will be "rong", the fusion of integration. The mainland is exploring a new path of cross-strait integration and development, and Fujian has been entrusted with the important task of providing institutional guarantees and policy support for the integration of Taiwan compatriots and Taiwan enterprises into Fujian, and it is necessary to promote Xiamen and Kinmen, and Fuzhou to Matsu. Fifty or sixty years ago, when we were soldiers, we knew very well that Xiamen was against Kinmen and Fuzhou was against Matsu. With the regional integration of Xiamen and Kinmen, Fuzhou and Xiamen, we will promote the integration of Fujian and Taiwan, and then promote integration through communication, meeting and affection. Now the people of Taiwan know very well that the Taiwan compatriot certificate does not necessarily have to be handled in Taiwan, but can be done on the spot after the approval of the junior junior, so as long as the DPP Lai Ching-te does not have more than half of the votes, then he must take care of the people's wishes and let the two sides of the strait start with integration. Then the heart and soul fit, then in the end, of course, it will come naturally, and it will be naturally unified.
After the "shortage" and "fear" in 2023, Taiwanese young people have begun to think with their brains and are no longer confused. As long as a young man in Taiwan has a reason to go to the mainland, he will immediately know that he has been completely deceived by the DPP in the past and has been fooled by the DPP, and he will have confidence and hope in his motherland. At this time, I think we not only hope that Taiwan can find the right path, but also hope that reunification will come soon.
Author丨Li Jiannan is a Taiwanese current affairs commentator
Editor丨Yang Ying, Editor-in-Chief of Shenzhen Satellite TV Direct News