Editorial: The man who sold Taiwan, twice

So former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) has wrapped up his second trip to China. Apart from helping this sad and aloof figure secure some kind of political legacy, it is hard to see what this latest trip has actually achieved.

Chinese President Hu Jintao's (胡錦濤) offer of talks based on the "one China" principle was nothing but the same stale produce that has been on the table for the last six years, wrapped up in fresh packaging. Hu made his latest offer safe in the knowledge that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government would reject it out of hand. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has been vilified in the Chinese media as the arch splittist and has become public enemy No. 1 since former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) retired. So there was no way that Hu would make an offer if he thought for a minute that Chen would accept it. If China was really interested in talking to Chen, it could have done so long ago.

Besides that, the communists tossed a few more crumbs onto the table in the guise of help for Taiwanese fishermen, farmers and other groups, in a blatant attempt to erode the DPP's support base. It's certain that there will be no positive achievements from Lien's trip. After all, what government would honor an agreement that their traitorous opposition had signed with a country that has 800 missiles trained on it?

One thing Lien's trip has achieved, however, is to drive yet another stake through the heart of Taiwan's already faltering democratic system. Sharp divisions have long festered under the surface of Taiwanese society, but since Lien's first visit to China last year, these divisions have resurfaced with a vengeance. By teaming up with the dictatorship across the Taiwan Strait to oppose Taiwanese who believe in democracy, Lien has done untold damage to this nation. It is hard to believe that this is a man who spent years both studying and teaching political science at some of the best universities in the self-styled "home of democracy," when it is apparent to all that he has not one iota of respect for that political system.

Why doesn't he just apply for membership in China's KMT -- the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang, which split from the KMT in the 1940s -- and take a seat in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference? He would feel much more at home there, since the one-party authoritarian system still employed in China would remind him of the good old days under KMT rule in Taiwan, when he didn't need to rely on the support of the people.

But having been rejected by the people of Taiwan not once, but twice, he decided to sell his soul to the devil, and turned to the only place where he knew he would be guaranteed a red-carpet reception. Indeed, looking at the pictures of the reception at the economic forum with hundreds of prominent businesspeople would impress anyone -- except that many of those people had been threatened, coerced and press-ganged into coming.

In his bid to satisfy his vanity, Lien and the KMT have merely become tools of the Chinese Communist Party's "united front" campaign. Lien is like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and the pro-unification media his pipe, as he leads Taiwan's democracy into the dark reaches of Beijing's cavern. The question is: Do the Taiwanese people want to follow him?