Critique

This Chapter is mainly focused on showing audience the historical truth, from the initial stage of the protest to the climax then to the end. The authors’ description is very detailed and truthful.
But when the authors talked about why pan-blue party called for a recount, the reason and evidence are some limited. They only talked about there was the suspectable shot. I admit the shot was a quite significant reason, but I believe there are two more reasons, realistic and historical.
First, according to my memory, there is another realistic reason which we must pay attention to. The pan-blues called for a recount on the basis of voting irregularities and an unusually high invalid ballots. After the vote, many people found their vote in the garbage and they support pan-blue parties. This of course irritated the pan-blues. They suspected it was President Chen and DPP(Democracy Progress Party) did this.
The second reason is a historical reason. In 1989, the former president Jing-Kuo Jiang claimed that the autocratic times was over. Taiwan will become a democratic country and he allowed other parties to take part in political issues. This was a great progress in Taiwan history. But this also caused KMT, who have ruled Republic of China for 78 years step down the historical stage. In the election of president in 1990, KMT was defeated by the new-founded DPP. If we know this, it will be easy to understand why KMT was eager to win the 2004 election. KMT do not like to be forgotten by history, they can not affording losing this election. It is ture, because after losing the election, the Chairman of KMT resigned. That is the historical reason why pan-blues called for a recount.

Chapter 4 Protests and Conflicts

In Chapter 4 of the book “ Taiwanese Identification and Democracy”(Olwen Bedford and Kwang-Kuo Hwang ,2006), the two authors Olwen Bedford and Kwang-Kuo Hwang talk about the protests and conflicts after the 2004 election of president. According to the author, Chen was elected for the new president only because one day before the vote, Chen was shot while campaigning near his hometown in Southern Taiwan. The authors firmly believe that is why the losing presidential and vice-presidential candidates called for a recount
In section 1, the authors talk about the scale of the protest led by pan-blue party, including the KMT (Kuo Min Tang) and PFP (People First party). They wrote that thousands of Taiwanese from many cities not only the capital Taipei joining the protest which named “We Want the Truth, We Fight for Justice, We Will Save Democracy”.
In section 2, the authors showed audience the president’s response. The authors said that first President Chen wanted to see the opposition leaders but did not have agreement. So the pan-blue supporters went on protesting. Then the authors told audience in the late times of that day, the president and the opposition leaders finally came to agreement.” According to the authors ,the agreement is that Central Election Commission (CEC) would recount the vote but the opposition leaders must stop the protests simultaneously.
The authors illustrated that until now, they were sure that the election of president was over finally.