China Launches Fierce Attack on Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, a Thorn in Its Side

President Tsai's 1st Re-election Anniversary: Taiwanese People Suffer from Policy Failures in Quarantine, Ceasefire, and Drought
Support Declines within Taiwan's DPP, Accelerating President Tsai's Power Drain

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Jo Young-shin] Chinese media harshly criticized Tsai Ing-wen, the President of Taiwan, on the occasion of her first anniversary in office, accusing her of failing in COVID-19 prevention. President Tsai was re-elected and inaugurated on May 20 last year. At the time of her inauguration last year, President Tsai reiterated her rejection of the "One Country, Two Systems" policy and advocated for Taiwan independence. From China's perspective, President Tsai is a thorn in their side.

China's state-run Global Times reported on the 21st that COVID-19 is spreading in Taiwan, causing public anger to boil over, and that President Tsai's loss of power could occur faster than expected.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The media outlet stated that although President Tsai succeeded in securing a second term last year thanks to her success in COVID-19 prevention, Taiwan's epidemic prevention system collapsed within a year, resulting in a major disaster for Taiwan.

In fact, Taiwan, once considered a model country for epidemic prevention, has reported 1,577 cases of community transmission in the past 10 days. The total cumulative confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan stand at 2,825. More than half of the cumulative cases occurred in just over 10 days. Taiwan even gave up hosting rights for the final round of the World Baseball Olympic Qualifiers.

It also emphasized that one of President Tsai's major campaign promises, the energy policy (nuclear phase-out), has failed. Taiwan experienced large-scale power outages due to power shortages on the 13th and 17th. Water shortage issues have also come under scrutiny. The Global Times reported that water supply was frequently interrupted due to drought, and 25% of Taiwan's farmland has dried up.

Given this situation, President Tsai's approval rating is plummeting. The Global Times cited a poll by Taiwan's private broadcaster TVBS, reporting that satisfaction with President Tsai's governance dropped by 20 percentage points from a year ago to only 41%. Additionally, an online poll conducted by Taiwan Yahoo News on the 18th showed that 79.5% of respondents were very dissatisfied with the Tsai administration.

Chinese media also quoted foreign media reports suggesting that Taiwan's success story could come to an end due to the infectious disease, drought, and power shortage crises. They also reported that both the first anniversary event and the inaugural speech of President Tsai have disappeared in Taiwan.

Jang Won-sung, Deputy Director of the Taiwan Research Institute at Xiamen University, explained, "President Tsai and the ruling party in Taiwan have advocated pro-American and anti-China policies, which are the root causes of the current internal and external difficulties." He added, "The ruling party in Taiwan mentioned importing U.S. pork containing ractopamine (a growth promoter) and showed ambiguous attitudes toward Japan's discharge of radioactive contaminated water. Dissatisfaction with the ruling party had already been accumulating among Taiwanese people before the COVID-19 outbreak."

Professor Chang Ya-jung of National Taiwan University, affiliated with the Kuomintang, predicted, "President Tsai is losing support from the public and within the Democratic Progressive Party, and the loss of power by President Tsai could occur before the midterm elections."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.