By Wang Ping

Lai Ching-te in recent days abruptly announced the decision to restart the second (Kuosheng) and third (Maanshan) nuclear power plants in China's Taiwan region. This sudden hairpin turn has sparked an uproar in Taiwan's public opinion: Has the decades-long "anti-nuclear" and "nuclear-free" posturing by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) finally been exposed by itself as a fraud on the people? The DPP has wielded the "anti-nuclear" posturing as a sacred cow to attack political opponents and swindle votes, yet it is the people in Taiwan who are left to foot the bill for the enormous economic and social costs incurred. Now that the "anti-nuclear" posturing has been abandoned by the DPP itself, what about its another sacred cow—the "Taiwan independence"?

When Taiwan's last nuclear reactor shut down in May 2025, the DPP authorities smugly declared its achievement of the "nuclear-free homeland by 2025"goal, bragging that it had drawn a close to Taiwan's 47-year history of nuclear power generation. However, only 10 months after the realization of the so-called "nuclear-free homeland," the DPP's "anti-nuclear" posturing has been switched into a "nuclear revival" attempt. Lai stated in public that the second and third nuclear power plants meet the conditions for reactivation, and Taiwan Power Company will soon submit the reactivation plan to the Nuclear Safety Commission for review.

So only one-year survival of the "nuclear-free homeland" is considered enough to ensure the termination of the whole job? Was the DPP's decades long of high-profile and vociferous "anti-nuclear" campaign all for nothing? If those people chanting that I am a human being and I oppose nuclear power had the power to deprive the pro-nuclear advocates of their basic rights as humans at that time, do those deciding on a "nuclear revival" deserve the dignity as humans?

The DPP's "anti-nuclear" and "nuclear-free" posturing has inflicted severe harm on Taiwan. For this region highly dependent on imported energy, developing nuclear power is a reasonable option. However, since its founding in the 1980s, the DPP has regarded "anti-nuclear" as a core political proposition. Under the DPP's boycotts and manipulation, Taiwan's fourth (Lungmen) nuclear power plant was repeatedly suspended and eventually mothballed. Instead of boosting Taiwan's power supply, the investment of 280 billion New Taiwan dollars of public money has been wasted on a white elephant that requires long-term maintenance. As the other three nuclear power plants were decommissioned one after another, Taiwan fell into a "protracted structural power shortage." Power constraints, regional blackouts, and even frequent island-wide power outages have become the norm, accompanied by soaring electricity prices and huge losses at Taiwan Power Company. The production safety of Taiwan's semiconductor and AI industries hangs in the balance, seriously eroding Taiwan's competitiveness and development potential.

The highly ideologized "anti-nuclear" stance has severely torn apart Taiwan's society. The DPP has long tied the "anti-nuclear" agenda to themes such as "anti-authoritarianism" and "localization," making it into a political label to divide the pan-blue and pan-green camps. The DPP has launched recurring large-scale protests, accompanied by hunger strikes, moral judgments, and personal attacks, artificially creating a chain of contempt. Those who support nuclear power have been demonized as "disregarding the lives of future generations," branded as "betray of Taiwan," and accused of being "anti-intellectual and backward." The public space for rational discussion has been squeezed, and Taiwan's society has been split into two irreconcilable groups.

If it is a right move to reactivate nuclear power, then the DPP's nearly 40 years of "anti-nuclear" campaign is a grave mistake. However, the crux of the issue is not a matter of right or wrong, but of deliberate wrongdoing. From the very beginning, the DPP has used the "anti-nuclear" stance as a tool for political strife, with the sole aim of defeating political opponents and swindling votes, rather than benefiting Taiwan. The DPP is not merely "short-sighted" or "lacking foresight," but knowingly pursues the "anti-nuclear" policy that harms Taiwan and its people, yet stubbornly clings to this harmful agenda for political gain. From this perspective, the DPP's two sacred cows—the "anti-nuclear" posturing and "Taiwan independence" stance—are essentially the same, since they both are enormous frauds that serve the DPP's selfish interests at the expense of Taiwan.

Editor's note: Originally published on people.com.cn, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.