A few days ago, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) wrote in the Chinese-language China Times that Taiwan must reinterpret “localization” as a concept of tolerance to allow all people, both older and newer immigrants, to enjoy Taiwan regardless of ethnicity, and that this is the only way to create social cohesion.
The DPP has had a progressive discourse on ethnic issues, though this changes at election time. After the assassination attempt on former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) in 2004, tensions reached boiling point and on Sept. 27 that year, the DPP passed a resolution on ethnicity and national unity at a party meeting. The Cabinet held a meeting to transfer the spirit of the resolution to its policies.
The resolution stressed forward-looking concepts such as reconciliation, forgiveness, tolerance and diversity. The cross-ministerial implementation was evidence of their efforts, but it was eventually undermined by power struggles within the DPP.
Unfortunately, the resolution’s main proponents later resorted to exclusionary “localization” language to obtain political support from key figures, and they manipulated the DPP’s party election mechanism. The result was that party members viewed as conciliatory were driven out of the party, and this became a main factor in the DPP’s dismal loss in subsequent elections.
Tsai, with her gentle and sincere image, faces a real challenge in changing the way her party handles ethnicity. As someone who stood above incendiary language and the ethnic quagmire, Tsai’s sincerity should earn her the trust and hope of many, but the question is if she really has the ability and the resolve to extricate the DPP from the issue.
The incident surrounding Toronto-based diplomat Kuo Kuan-ying (郭冠英) suggests some pan-green camp members would extend this isolated case by making sweeping claims to gain votes in today’s Da-an District (大安) by-election in Taipei City. Perhaps Tsai’s comments will be an opportunity for the DPP to start over again. I hope a more tolerant view of localization will help the DPP develop new policies and nominate suitable candidates.
However, eliminating the ethnic issue is not just about politics and policy. The Kuo incident caused such a strong reaction because it touched on discrimination and loyalty. Under Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule, Mainlanders were concentrated in specific professional positions and some systems were to a certain extent designed to oppress particular groups. Relations between groups are quite harmonious for now, but any electoral conflict or large identity dispute still causes standoffs and distrust; we even see defamation and attacks based on stereotypes.
The road to reconciliation involves more than resolution of political divisions. I hope acceptance and dialogue will offer a chance to rediscover experiences and sentiments that help form an identity. We should try to see things as ordinary citizens and incorporate incidents and memories suppressed by ethnic policies. We should try to show feelings toward and recognition of fellow citizens and avoid cultivating suspicions or making judgments based on preconceptions. Individuals and groups must stop using the media and ethnically defined politics to oppress others.
This year is the 60th anniversary of the KMT’s relocation to Taiwan and a lot of discussion and remembrance will take place. The only way to establish mutual understanding and a more tolerant civil society is to link each individual to history and engage in deeper thought on war and conflict.
We cannot assume that politicians will achieve these complex and lofty goals by making speeches; we must all take responsibility.
Huang Luo-feei is president of the Association for Mainlander Taiwanese.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
Because much of what former US president Donald Trump says is unhinged and histrionic, it is tempting to dismiss all of it as bunk. Yet the potential future president has a populist knack for sounding alarums that resonate with the zeitgeist — for example, with growing anxiety about World War III and nuclear Armageddon. “We’re a failing nation,” Trump ranted during his US presidential debate against US Vice President Kamala Harris in one particularly meandering answer (the one that also recycled urban myths about immigrants eating cats). “And what, what’s going on here, you’re going to end up in World War
Earlier this month in Newsweek, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to retake the territories lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. He stated: “If it is for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t [the PRC] take back the lands occupied by Russia that were signed over in the treaty of Aigun?” This was a brilliant political move to finally state openly what many Chinese in both China and Taiwan have long been thinking about the lost territories in the Russian far east: The Russian far east should be “theirs.” Granted, Lai issued
On Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) met with a delegation from the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University in California, to discuss strengthening US-Taiwan relations and enhancing peace and stability in the region. The delegation was led by James Ellis Jr, co-chair of the institution’s Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region project and former commander of the US Strategic Command. It also included former Australian minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne, influential US academics and other former policymakers. Think tank diplomacy is an important component of Taiwan’s efforts to maintain high-level dialogue with other nations with which it does
On Sept. 2, Elbridge Colby, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development, wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal called “The US and Taiwan Must Change Course” that defends his position that the US and Taiwan are not doing enough to deter the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from taking Taiwan. Colby is correct, of course: the US and Taiwan need to do a lot more or the PRC will invade Taiwan like Russia did against Ukraine. The US and Taiwan have failed to prepare properly to deter war. The blame must fall on politicians and policymakers