How Is Tsai Ing-wen Not Going to Squander the Chen Chu Card?

  How Is Tsai Ing-wen Not Going to Squander the Chen Chu Card?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

April 12, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

Tsai Ing-wen yesterday formally announced that Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu would be appointed as Secretary-General to the President. For Tsai Ing-wen in the future, many frictions in the party and government as well as in election campaign matters, she willrely on Chen Chu for coordination; for Chen Chu, her appointment will not only expand the power and status of the New Tide Faction, it will also allow several top lieutenants of the Kaohsiung team to climb further up, leaving everyone happy. The problem is, how long could the panacea of Chen Chu help the Tsai government maintain the momentum of excitement?

People have this question mainly because the multiplying effect of Lai Ching-te for the Tsai government has been rapidly receding. If the style of the Tsai government and its mentality in governance remain unchanged, assuming Chen Chu had magic powers, how could she alone help the Tsai government to create miracles?

The Lai Ching-te Cabinet has only been in office for seven months. Lai Ching-te has already exhausted the majority of his opportunities in which he could have contributed to the halo of the Tsai government and exposed his obstinacy and caliber; from now on, the situation could be even worse. Precisely because of this, Chen Chu’s appointment at this time underscored its importance. Tsai Ing-wen’s poor performance in governance will inevitably affect the election campaign, and Chen Chu's coming to the rescue, at this timely hour, would probably remedy the situation.

If Tsai Ing-wen is worried about the election campaign, she most probably would literally squander this trump card of Chen Chu. The problem is, besides thinking of power, does Tsai have other things on her mind?

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