On Saturday, the Taiwan local authorities held four "referendums" on key issues such as restarting a nuclear power plant and banning imports of pigs from the United States because they are fed ractopamine.

In the evening, the results were disclosed: All four "referendums" failed. That means the Taiwan people will continue to experience electricity shortages and eat pork that may harm their health.

All through the preparations for and the holding of the four "referendums", certain political forces in Taiwan speculated on "intervention from the mainland". Some guessed there were mainland opinions behind those calling for a ban on pigs imported from the US, while an opinion article in Taiwan-based media Liberty Times even "observed" websites and social media accounts on the mainland and "summarized" that the mainland media outlets focused on the pig issue as a "breaking point so as to influence the coming elections".

In doing so, those holding such views misjudge others based on their own bad intentions.

Actually, there were voices in Taiwan calling for the "referendums" because the ruling Democratic Progressive Party has done a bad job. For long, it has been selling Taiwan people's interests to please the US, the imports of pigs is only one of the issues that has angered Taiwan people.

The Taiwan people want safe food, a clean environment, an abundant supply of electricity, as well as low taxes. Taiwan is part of China, and media outlets from the Chinese mainland have the right to pay attention to the legitimate demands of the Taiwan people.

Many media outlets and scholars in Taiwan also pay attention to the calls. But the DPP authorities played the card of a "threat" from the mainland to cajole the Taiwan people into believing that the island must maintain US support at the expense of the Taiwan people's interest.

The DPP knows why these problems happen and what the Taiwan people want. They used to play the trick of "popular will" to get power, yet now with power in hand they abuse it for their own selfish interests. But their tricks have already been recognized by many people on the island. Although the four "referendums" failed, that they were held is in itself a testimony to what the DPP has done in wooing the support of the US at the expense of the interests of the Taiwan people. It won't be long before the DPP tricks are exposed.