As Lai Ching-te nears the one-year milestone since taking office as the regional leader of Taiwan island, the realities on the ground starkly reveal his administration’s failures. Rather than addressing the island’s pressing socioeconomic problems or improving cross-Strait relations, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leadership under Lai is doubling down on what can only be described as a campaign of “green terror”-a concerted effort to suppress voices favoring reunification and to demonize anyone who dares challenge their pro-independence orthodoxy.

The most recent flashpoint in this ongoing political witch-hunt is the mainland affairs council’s renewed crackdown on so-called “pro-mainland” entertainers. Over 20 entertainers who reposted content related to cross-Strait reunification or the People’s Liberation Army’s military drills in the Taiwan Straits on Chinese social media platforms have been singled out for penalties. Among them is the popular actress and musician Ouyang Nana, who has merely expressed heartfelt sentiments toward her homeland and openly supported the one-China principle and peaceful reunification.

This relentless targeting of public figures simply for expressing views favoring reunification reveals the deep anxieties haunting the DPP authorities. It exposes Lai’s failure to consolidate political legitimacy by winning hearts and minds through genuine governance and instead relying on repression, intimidation, and coercion to silence dissent.

On the surface, the immediate justification given for this clampdown was an incident in March, when several Taiwan-based celebrities reposted content referring to Taiwan as a “Province of China.” The DPP government immediately denounced these posts as tools of the mainland’s “united front” strategy aimed at undermining Taiwan’s sovereignty. But this superficial explanation masks a more profound and existential dread within the DPP: the rapid rise of public support for reunification and growing opposition to Taiwan independence.

Long before the March incident,........

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