On Dec. 16, Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Wang's remarks were immediately attacked by the pan-green camp. Indeed, the "1992 consensus" and the notion of "one China, with each side making its own interpretation" have always been the keynotes of the KMT's cross-strait policy. Since when has it changed its stance? Did the chairman of the pan-blue camp's presidential election campaign make the comments simply to attract votes?
Even though the impression that politicians are irresponsible in their talk remains deeply embedded in the public mind, for a political heavyweight like Wang -- whether he's responsible or not -- at least thinks thoroughly before he speaks, and makes comments for specific purposes. The purpose of his recent remarks is to win over the support of local voters. As he said, "The blue camp will repeatedly strengthen its emphasis on the localization discourse in the election battle."
The problem therefore lies in voters themselves. Wang's comments on cross-strait relations show that this kind of talk is popular with voters. If that is the case, the blue camp can surely understand why President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) insists on launching a "defensive referendum," because a referendum will highlight the issue of self-determination, as well as please voters.
Has the referendum issue offended the US or even damaged the trust between Taipei and Washington? Perhaps. But, if not for its concerns about a backlash from voters, the KMT would not have kept a "defensive referendum" clause in the law, allowing Chen the space to maneuver. As the opposition's legislative speaker, Wang is responsible for the passage of the Referendum Law (
Wang's talk was considered honest. In fact, his honesty has highlighted a fundamental problem: neither the ruling nor the opposition camp has yet touched on core policies in the run-up to the election.
We all know that a "greater China economic circle" is forming now, and that most people favor the opening of direct links between the two sides of the Strait. However, Beijing will only return to the negotiating table under the condition of the "one China" principle. Unwilling to accept this condition, Chen has turned to a hardline stance from his "five noes" policy. How will the blue camp deal with the problem once it comes to power?
The blue camp can criticize the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) government for failing to propose policies to solve these problems. In the past, the blue camp only tried to avoid such problems by criticizing Chen. But Wang's honesty has highlighted the necessity for the blue camp to face these problems.
Nevertheless, Wang is still not honest enough. He said that the pivotal campaign issues are the economy, unemployment, education reforms and government finance, and that neither sovereignty nor cross-strait relations are priority issues on the blue camp's agenda. The problem is: when the economy goes wrong, the blue camp often links it to cross-strait relations, but it usually switches its focus back to voters when it comes to elections.
It is more important that both camps seriously explain and debate their policies and strategies. At least, they should tell the people which path they are taking.
Ku Er-teh is a freelance writer.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trip to China provides a pertinent reminder of why Taiwanese protested so vociferously against attempts to force through the cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014 and why, since Ma’s presidential election win in 2012, they have not voted in another Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate. While the nation narrowly avoided tragedy — the treaty would have put Taiwan on the path toward the demobilization of its democracy, which Courtney Donovan Smith wrote about in the Taipei Times in “With the Sunflower movement Taiwan dodged a bullet” — Ma’s political swansong in China, which included fawning dithyrambs