Donovan’s Deep Dives: Strangely, many foreign observers find Taiwan’s totally normal politics mystifying

10 months ago

Taiwan’s politics is mystifying to many foreign observers.

Gosh, that is strange, considering just how logical and straightforward it all is. Let us take a step back and review.

Thanks to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), starting this year people will once again have Christmas Day off work. In 2002, the Scrooges in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said “bah, humbug” to that.

The holiday is not actually Christmas, but rather Constitution Day, celebrating the enactment of the Constitution of the Republic of China (ROC) on December 25, 1947. The DPP and the then pan-blue dominated legislature traded in some holidays to enact the radical notion of two-day weekends.

Though the Constitution has been amended to only apply to the “free area of the Republic of China,” it was originally written to apply to the vast Chinese empire claimed by the ROC, including Mongolia, Tibet and East Turkestan.

Original Article