Su Tseng-chang’s Three Haughty Features: Haughty Airs, Highhandedness, and Bullying

Su Tseng-chang’s Three Haughty Features: Haughty Airs, Highhandedness, and Bullying

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

March 26, 2020

 Translation of an Excerpt

Since his comeback as Premier, Su Tseng-chang, relying on his haughty airs, has gained volume on the Internet, but with the passage of time, Premier Su’s "haughty style" has gradually undergone a qualitative change, unveiling "highhandedness" and even "bullying" beneath the veneer of “haughtiness.” “The three Su-style haughty features” have been losing more and more of its flavor.

Haughty airs and highhandedness are often divided by only a thread. His haughty airs are in fact highhandedness, relying on the weight of his high office. However, once the tone is set for an attitude of this kind of highhandedness, it becomes difficult to adjust later on, thus, humanitarian considerations are thrown out of the window. What is more dreadful than haughty airs and highhandedness is Su-style "bullying." Headed by the hardcore staff of the Su Cabinet, bullying specific media outlets and reporters, this approach wants to produce among media outlets a chilling effect under the attacks of netizens, reducing the force of oversight.

For the "Su-style approach", whether it is haughty airs, highhandedness, or bullying, Su Tseng-chang does not choose "to do the right thing", but chooses "political correctness": on the one hand shirking responsibilities and on the other, attacking opponents; this is the reality of “connecting with the grassroots” by the Su Cabinet. However, from the viewpoint of Taiwan's democratic politics, this kind of brute, populist, and bullying attitude is, nevertheless, squandering democracy and backpedaling in a grand style.

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