“No to black box politics" — Phrase of the Week
A week of protests in Taiwan is sparked by underhand political moves in its Legislature
Our phrase of the week is: “no to black box politics" (反黑箱 fǎn hēixiāng).
Context
Chaotic scenes unfolded in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan on Friday, May 17.
Taiwanese lawmakers shoved each other and exchanged blows in parliament in a dispute about controversial reforms to the chamber.
The reform bills were proposed by the opposition parties, the Kuomintang (KMT), and The People's Party (TPP).
The opposition wants to expand the powers of parliament and restrict the power of the government.
The ruling Democratic People’s Party (DPP) says the KMT and TPP are forcing through the policy reforms without the customary consultation process, calling it "an unconstitutional abuse of power".
Outside the Legislative Yuan, crowds of protesters gathered, including many students, calling for the democratic process to be upheld:
No debate, no democracy!
没有讨论，不是民主！
Méiyǒu tǎolùn, búshì mínzhǔ!
The crowds continued to grow.
By the following Friday around 100,000 demonstrators gathered on the streets around the Legislative Yuan, while lawmakers had still not resolved their dispute.
Inside parliament, representatives of all parties continued to protest:
DPP legislators hung slogans like “Parliament is becoming more like the National People’s Congress in China; Taiwan is becoming more like Hong Kong”, “No to black box politics. Yes to consultation”, and “Democracy is dead. Elegy of the Parliament”.
Whereas, KMT and TPP representatives hung slogans such as “No to violence, yes to reform”, “Anti-corruption”, “Investigate corruption cases”, and “The policy debate must continue”.
民进党立委挂出“国会人大化，台湾香港化”、“反黑箱，要协商、“民主已死，国会挽歌”等标语；国民党和民众党团则在台上挂出“反暴力，要改革”标语，手举“反腐败”、“查弊案”、“要开会”等看板。
Mínjìndǎng lìwěi guàchū “guóhuì réndà huà, táiwān xiānggǎng huà”,“fǎn hēixiāng, yào xiéshāng,“mínzhǔ yǐsǐ, guóhuì wǎngē” děng biāoyǔ; guómíndǎng hé mínzhòngdǎng tuán zé zài táishàng guàchū “fǎn bàolì, yào gǎigé” biāoyǔ, shǒu jǔ “fǎn fǔbài”,“chá bì’àn”,“yào kāihuì” děng kànbǎn.
And with that we have our Sinica Phrase of the Week.
What it means
"Black box" is a political term used in Taiwan.
The original phrase is "black box operation" (黑箱操作 hēixiāng cāozuò), which means the political process is being concealed from lawmakers and the people.
"Black box operation" is not commonly used on the Mainland. Instead, a similar phrase, "dark operation" (暗箱操作 ànxiāng cāozuò) is common, which usually refers to corrupt practices within or connected to the government.
In Taiwan, the phrase can be shortened to "black box" (黑箱 hēixiāng), which has a particular significance in Taiwan’s recent political history.
The phrase is reminiscent of the “Sunflower Movement” (太阳花运动 tàiyánghuā yùndòng), student protests which took place in March, 2014.
Then, protesters were calling for proper democratic process in the passage of the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement, or CSSTA (海峡两岸服务贸易协议 or 服贸 for short) between Taiwan and the Mainland, pushed by the then-ruling KMT.
One of the main slogans during those protests was:
Reject CSSTA! Reject black box!
反服贸、反黑箱！
fǎn fúmào, fǎn hēixiāng!
Ten years on, many of those student protesters of the Sunflower Movement gathered again on the streets of Taipei and other cities in Taiwan, protesting once more against the lack of due democratic process, and “black box politics”.
So we translate this week’s Phrase of the Week as “No to black box politics”.
Andrew Methven is the author of RealTime Mandarin, a resource to help you learn contemporary Chinese in context, and stay on top of the latest language trends in China.
Read more about how this story is being discussed in the Chinese media in this week’s RealTime Mandarin.
And read this Phrase of the Week to learn about “Frozen garlic”.