“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times …” This is the opening line of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, describing the turmoil of the French Revolution. The same words could describe the views of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on the state and direction of relations across the Taiwan Strait.
“A tale of two cities” is an apt description of the gulf between Taiwan’s two ideological camps. The debate over national security has entered a state of upheaval and disintegration.
Is China an enemy or a friend — or a combination of the two?
In the past, the government promoted anti-communism, but no longer. The government used to provoke China’s leaders, but now it does all it can to comply with Beijing’s wishes. In the past, Taiwan maintained contact with figures from China’s democracy movement and people like the Dalai Lama and exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, but now we avoid them like the plague.
Now that Taiwan and China are relaxing cross-strait regulations on diplomacy and overseas compatriot affairs, should there be a relaxation in defense matters as well, or should Taiwan maintain sufficient military strength to mount a hedgehog defense?
China has not reduced the number of missiles it has deployed against Taiwan, and it has not renounced the option of using military force against Taiwan.
But 21 retired senior army officers did not let that stop them from visiting China’s Xiamen to chat over a game of golf with 16 retired commanders of the People’s Liberation Army in May.
Another issue the military faces is how to deal with Taiwan-born World Bank senior vice president Justin Lin (林毅夫) should he follow through on his hope to visit Taiwan.
Control Yuan officials have overruled the Ministry of Defense on the affair, but that does not change the fact that Lin defected to China when he was an as army captain on the front line at Kinmen in 1979.
Cross-strait relations are moving ahead quickly, with nine agreements signed between the two sides in just 10 months.
The proud officials responsible for these developments say cross-strait relations are the best they have been since the Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan in 1949.
Although opinion polls show that 90 percent of Taiwanese favor maintaining the “status quo” in cross-strait affairs, relations between Taiwan and China have already changed substantially since the KMT took office in May last year.
The sovereignty aspect of cross-strait relations is not sufficiently transparent.
While government bureaucrats fail to thoroughly assess the implications of these policy changes, the KMT-dominated legislature does not provide effective oversight, and the opposition DPP is busy coping with its own problems.
Ordinary people are bewildered by the changes, and even those who claim to be experts find it hard to keep up.
The short-term improvements in cross-strait relations are not so much because of efforts on the Taiwan side as to shifts in its policies and standpoints.
In the process, Taiwan has lost many of its key bargaining chips, with little in the way of open and objective discussion.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is growing fonder of the KMT and is taking the opportunity to push cross-strait relations ahead to the extent that any future government will not be able to reverse the process.
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