To the woe of global investors, stocks markets sank after US President Donald Trump announced sweeping global tariffs last week. Taiwan was no exception. Nearly all of the TAIEX’s 1,000-plus members fell. Benchmark companies lost ground, including a 3.8 percent drop by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the index’s top-weighted member. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co fell by the daily limit of 10 percent, while MediaTek Inc lost 5.95 percent.
Like many other countries, Taiwan has reached out to the US for talks after Trump’s announcement. The Executive Yuan has announced that it would allocate NT$88 billion (US$2.69 billion) to assist industrial and agricultural sectors affected by the tariffs. President William Lai (賴清德) has proposed a zero-tariff regime with the US, while a negotiation team led by Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) is ready to begin talks.
Despite the government’s countermeasures, the nation’s two largest opposition parties have latched onto the opportunity to whip up anti-US sentiment. Using TSMC as an example, they said that despite the firm’s promise last month to invest an additional US$100 billion in the US, Washington still slapped a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese imports, which is a manifestation of the US’ capricious character and unreliability.
Now that Taiwan has laid its cards on the table, it is no longer in a position to negotiate for zero tariffs. Similar to the narrative of former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who claimed that “Taiwanese people consumed American pork, bought US arms, but still didn’t get COVID-19 vaccines from the US,” the opposition’s “ungrateful US” narrative is another page from their playbook. The difference is that they are using Trump’s tariffs to portray the Lai administration as a power-hungry government that is focused on the movement to recall KMT lawmakers, and that they are using it as a smokescreen to hide their incompetence instead of seeking cross-party collaboration to confront a national crisis.
However, the blue and white camps have stopped merely acting as China’s mouthpiece. By making unconstitutional amendments to allocate 60 percent of funding to local governments, they are pushing a plan to hollow out the central government. That evolution suggests something more sinister — that the Chinese Communist Party is implicitly pulling the strings.
To put a stop to the undermining of the government, the recall campaigns were launched to counter legislators who do not have Taiwan’s best interests at heart, regardless of Trump’s tariffs and the performance of the stock market. Similar to Trump’s comparison of tariffs to surgery — “The operation is over! The patient lived and is healing” — the recall movement is surgery to remove malignant tumors eating away at Taiwan’s vibrant democratic body. Without the recall bids, pro-China forces would proliferate and metastasize, paving the way for an easier takeover by Chinese forces.
On a deeper level, Trump’s trade war is a de facto “recall” movement against China. His tariff policy aims to strike at the heart of China’s manufacturing juggernaut — a clutter of factories, assembly lines and supply chains that manufacture and ship just about everything.
As one of the US’ most trustworthy allies and partners, Taiwan cannot bear to lose its democracy and national integrity by turning a blind eye to pro-China lawmakers. Over the past few months, the public has witnessed the opposition-led legislature distort and abuse legislative procedures to an unprecedented degree. The recall movement might be hard work and time-consuming, but it is necessary — a means to preserve Taiwan’s identity and democracy.
If Trump understands the necessity of tariff “surgery” to counter China, it is imperative that Taiwanese know the same about the recall movement.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. It is high time that Taiwanese pick up the lancet before it is too late.
