When Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou
At the lavish banquet held on the evening he arrival, Ma's impromptu 45-minute speech not only stunned the Chinese officials running Taiwan affairs but also opened the eyes of Hong Kong officials and businessmen. After the banquet, many people lauded Taiwan's democratic politics and multi-party elections for cultivating this kind of extraordinary political talent. The news media were also unanimous in their admiration of Ma because they saw that he was completely unafraid of the media, in strong contrast to public figures from China.
According to a source from China, support for Ma by Hong Kong's left and its government was inspired by Beijing. Zhongnanhai
First, Beijing's inner circle adjusted its policy toward Taiwan after Chen Shui-bian (
Second, after losing central government power, the KMT maintained power only in some city and county governments. Beijing then felt it could apply the civil-war era theory of "villages surrounding the cities." They plan to use the KMT's localized power to surround the DPP's central power. Beijing therefore welcomed Ma with great fanfare while downplaying the arrival of fellow KMT member Chang Liang-jen (張良任), who was taking up his position as general manager of Chung Hwa Travel Service (中華旅行社), Taiwan's de facto representative office in Hong Kong, because Beijing feels that Chang represents the DPP government.
The source said that Beijing considered Ma's visit to be a city-to-city exchange. In the future, relations between cities across the Taiwan Strait can be further developed, creating a network to curb the DPP's central power. A leader in Beijing even proposed a "cable" theory along these lines. He said Taiwan is like a big ship, which is now slowly floating away from China. Exchanges between cities on the two sides of the Strait are like cables that can hold the ship firmly and prevent it from floating too far away. The source said that if Beijing evaluates Ma's Hong Kong trip as a success, then in the future he will be invited through local authorities to visit other cities, including Shenzhen, Shanghai and Macau.
Third, Beijing feels that given Ma's likely future political weight, it is worth investing effort to cultivate relations with him. The source said that Beijing had done comprehensive research on Ma before his trip, including analysis of Ma's leanings with regard to independence or unification, his political prospects, his opinions on mainland affairs, his connections in the US and his personality. Their final conclusion was that Ma will play an even more important role in the KMT and in Taiwan's overall political scene and that he could be elected president. Beijing therefore should vigorously strengthen its lobbying to bring Ma into a united front and develop a relationship with him. A Taiwan affairs policy maker from Beijing said, "Now is the time to sow seeds with Ma Ying-jeou."
According to reports, in order to move Ma emotionally, Beijing even instructed personnel in Hong Kong to collect as many relevant personal materials as possible from Hong Kong at the time of Ma's birth -- for example his birth certificate, copies of newspapers from the day of his birth and photos of the places his parents lived.
Beijing also decided, rather thoughtfully, that they should take Ma's political life in Taiwan into account and that there was no need to cause too many political difficulties for him. The fanfare should be appropriate. Going too far would cause trouble for Ma. After Beijing's English-language newspaper, the China Daily, therefore, twisted the facts by reporting that Ma supported "one country, two systems" they unexpectedly published a rare correction. In the past, when Beijing's print media have misquoted foreign personalities, they have never paid the slightest attention to the objections of those involved.
A source in Hong Kong said that Beijing was basically very satisfied with the outcome of Ma's visit and that their only complaint was with the performance of high-level SAR officials. An official in Qian's office, which handles foreign affairs as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong affairs, privately denounced Hong Kong government officials as stupid and lacking political sense.
This was Ma's second trip to Hong Kong since becoming mayor of Taipei. On both occasions he was invited by the Hong Kong Policy Research Institute, headed by Paul Yip (葉國華), the chief executive's special adviser. Ma first visited Hong Kong as Taipei mayor in March 1999, before Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) proposed his "special state-to-state" (兩國論) model for cross-strait relations. At that time, Beijing demanded that the Hong Kong government adhere to the "three no's" in its handling of Ma's visit -- no official reception, no arrangement for him to tour government organs and no discussion of political topics apart from those relating to municipal governments, economics and the people's livelihood.
Taiwan's political situation has undergone major changes, however, and Beijing has readjusted its policy toward Taiwan. Beijing set no restrictions on Ma's recent visit. But the Hong Kong officials apparently failed to realize this. On Feb. 9, before reports in the Hong Kong newspapers confirmed that Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (董建華) would meet with Ma -- who would also be given VIP passage at the airport -- Hong Kong's high officials were afraid to have contact with him.
Li Yu is a columnist for the Hong Kong-based Open magazine. This is part one of a two-part article. Part two will appear tomorrow.
Translated by Ethan Harkness
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