More than 250,000 people on Saturday rallied in a rainy Taipei against the “dictatorship” of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities in Taiwan.
Locals were joined by Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu and former Chairman Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Huang Kuo-chang, the head of Taiwan’s legislative body Han Kuo-yu and other representatives of the legislative body, as well as local political figures from all over the island.
The rally took place against the backdrop of the so-called mass recall launched by the DPP earlier this year, which targeted legislative representatives affiliated with the KMT, as searches were conducted against KMT offices across Taiwan.
Since taking office in May last year, Taiwan leader Lai Ching-te has been dividing and destroying Taiwan, turning a once united Taiwan into a society marked by confrontation, Chu said at the rally, adding that Lai is seeking to eliminate all those who oppose him in pursuit of personal interests and one-party dominance.
Huang echoed his words, stressing that the so-called mass recall aims to advance Lai’s push toward authoritarian rule, and it is an attempt to make Taiwan a place where “those who follow Lai thrive, and those who oppose him perish,” which is a tragedy for the island.
On the DPP authorities’ yielding to U.S. trade coercion following the U.S. proposal of so-called reciprocal tariffs, Ma denounced the DPP authorities’ incompetence and authoritarianism, warning that a leader who is incompetent, unmerited and authoritarian is very likely to trigger confrontations across the Taiwan Straits in the future.
Lu Shiow-yen, mayor of Taichung, where manufacturing is the pillar industry, urged Lai at the rally to listen to the voices of the people and the industries and focus on revitalizing the economy rather than engaging in political maneuvering.
The rally concluded with the crowd’s angry chants of “Lai Ching-te, step down” in unison.
Looking a bit into this, it seems to be shenanigans over some budget cuts that were approved by the majority-KMT legislature, possibly just to mess with the DPP government. So the DPP is now trying to get recall votes in almost every KMT consituency where they can do so. Kinda reminds me of all the (attempts at) recall votes for California’s governor.
Some businessman and his NGO advocated for doing these mass recalls for “KMT=fifth column” reasons, but afaik there was little grassroots support for this
Capitalist things happen capitalistly.
CHUDs: This is literally communism!
Kinda funny when they say the rally took place in a “rainy Taipei” meanwhile the stock photo shows it being sunny.
BBC filter but in reverse because this is the good capitalist China
CGTN is “Chinese state media” lol, it used to be called CCTV like at home
CGTN is “Chinese state media” lol
Sure, but I could totally see British state media BBC doing this, hence the comment
it used to be called CCTV
Closed captioning television?
Lu Shiow-yen, mayor of Taichung, where manufacturing is the pillar industry
It’s early so I read this as “where there is a manufacturer in the pillar industry” and had a moment of wonder as I contemplated for the first time the existence of a pillar industry
my grandfather had a corinthian monopoly before the revolution
the pillar industry supports the firmament of the economy
women-owned pillar factories hold up half the sky
Anything more complicated that Doric is bourgeoisie decadence.
the firmament of the economy is capstoned by the pediment of the state
They want a gusanoer president
or is this based?deleted by creator
From what I’ve heard, the KMT are weirdly the more moderate and pro peaceful cooperation and commerce with the rest of China party now despite their history, and the DPP are the fully US aligned extreme right party that’s more like the old KMT. AFAIK the KMT are still US-aligned nationalists like they always were, but they’re less warhawkish and just want the status quo to peacefully continue.
Imagine being Taiwanese, looking at the current state of Ukraine and thinking “This rules. I want this for me.”
One of the speakers in the rally actually mentioned Ukraine in a “we can’t allow Taiwan to become the next Ukraine” way lmao
Future “fell for it award” recipients
The award is a jug of Kool aid with a secret, special ingredient
The KMT opposes independence like the DPP wants and they advocate for “cross-Strait dialogue” with China. They’re the legacy party that founded the Republic of China. They are lean older and more conservative, whereas the DPP is associated with the youth.
the KMT base is mostly in the urban north/east coast, as well as outlying islands like Jinmen. like, the people that would be most affected by strained relationship with the mainland. DPP has most of its base in the south and west. a lot of old rural people are strong DPP supporters and I think most indigenous taiwanese are as well
yeah for some reason i lumped gaoxiong/pingdong/taidong together as dark green but turns out the southeast is blue. good to know!
I know nothing about Taiwanese politics beyond KMT historically bad. What’s happening here?
A third party called the TPP has recently become electorally viable with elected officials. The TPP doesn’t fall into old Taiwanese electoral paradigms (waishengren vs benshengren, status quo vs separatism) and is a vaguely progressive party. But the key point about the party is that it attracts young people, including people who are too young to vote but who will eventually age up towards voting age. The DPP, the comprador separatist party that has roots with Japanese collaborators during WWII, doesn’t like this because the DPP was supposed to be the new hip party compared with the KMT that only boomers like.
Here are the results of the 2024 Taiwanese presidential election.. One additional thing to note is that the KMT and TPP almost ran a joint ticket (with Hou Yu-ih as President and Ko Wen-je as Vice President I believe) before the blue-white coalition fell through, meaning the DPP only won because votes were split between the KMT and TPP. Still, the DPP ate shit in the 2024 legislative elections. The KMT has one more seat than the DPP, but it doesn’t have a majority. The TPP is essentially the tie-breaker, and they’re siding with the KMT.
There’s the wide perception that the TPP is completely carried by Ko Wen-je (opponents call the TPP a cult of personality surrounding Ko), which is why the DPP is trying to bust him on corruption charges. This is the context of this protest and previous protests (there was another one earlier that had at least 150000 people but you didn’t hear a word of this from Western MSM because they’re running defense for the DPP). The DPP is waging lawfare against their political opponents the TPP and the KMT. That previous protest was over the DPP trying to jail Ko in their attempts to sink the TPP while this protest is over the DPP trying to impeach various KMT politicians.
KMT bad, DPP somewhat worse.
From what I understand, the KMT are actually more moderate than the current ruling party.
KMT = right wing chinese nationalist
DPP = actively sucks america’s cock
“if China invades, destroy all your fab factories” is a DPP thing
