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🇹🇼 Taiwan /Elections & Politics

Li Chung-hsien Praises Shen Po-yang for Thinking Beyond a Prepared Script

From Liberty Times · () Chinese

Translated from Chinese and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Opinion Named sources Context piece
  • Scholar Li Chung-hsien said he would favor Shen Po-yang over Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an if the choice were based solely on thinking ability.
  • Li argued that political leaders should understand unexpected questions, form their own judgments and take responsibility when prepared answers no longer work.
  • He said this assessment did not mean Shen was always correct or that every policy position deserved support.

Scholar Li Chung-hsien says the difference between Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an and legislator Shen Po-yang can be seen when the prepared script disappears.

Writing on Facebook, Li said he had interacted with Shen several times and observed how he answered questions. Shen, he said, did not simply recite prepared lines. He reorganized the information after hearing a question and then formed a response.

If the choice for Taipei mayor in the future is between Chiang Wan-an and Shen Po-yang, judging solely by thinking ability, I would choose Shen Po-yang.

— Li Chung-hsienHis assessment of the two politicians based on their ability to think independently.

Li stressed that this did not make every answer correct, nor did it mean all of Shen’s policy positions deserved support. His point was about the ability to think independently. He said democracy involves choosing not only answers, but also the people who produce them.

When the originally prepared answer no longer works, can he produce a new answer himself?

— Li Chung-hsienThe standard he said he uses to assess a politician’s thinking ability.

The scholar contrasted that quality with the criticism directed at Chiang, whom online users have mocked with nicknames suggesting he repeats scripts, gives answers to different questions, or appears vacant. Li said reading from a script does not prove that someone cannot think, just as answering spontaneously does not guarantee correctness. What matters, he said, is whether a politician can produce a new answer when the prepared one no longer applies.

Li compared politics with learning a language. Memorizing polished sentences is not enough, he wrote. Real ability appears when those sentences disappear and a person can still express, understand and think. Wars, disasters, pandemics, international politics and daily city problems do not follow a script, he said. Voters therefore need to consider who can make judgments when a crisis brings an unfamiliar question and aides have no prepared response. Li ended by asking what remains in a politician’s mind once the script has been taken away.

When the script is taken away, what is left in his mind?

— Li Chung-hsienHis concluding question about political leaders and prepared answers.
About this summary

Originally published by Liberty Times in Chinese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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