Retired Air Force general Hsia Ying-chou (夏瀛洲) was quoted in the media in China as saying during a visit to China that the Republic of China (ROC) Army and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) are both “Chinese armies.” President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) reacted angrily, saying that if there were any truth in the reports, the suggestion amounted to a betrayal of Taiwan. He also ordered an annual limit to be imposed on the number of retired military officers allowed to travel to China.
Hsia replied by saying he felt very disheartened, paying out of his own pocket to go to China in the service of his country, only to be vilified on his return.
The reason he found it disheartening was that it was Ma himself who relaxed the travel restrictions for retired generals, the very minute he got into office, as part of a military mutual trust mechanism which aimed to promote peace with China. This is the same Ma who is now dressing these generals down for doing what he previously encouraged.
Some think the reason retired generals go to China is because they are unhappy with how the pan-green camp made waves over Taiwanese independence. This isn’t the case, because when the pro-independence administration of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was in power, retired generals traveled to China in small groups of no more than five. Larger groups only started visiting after Ma came into the picture. The main driver behind this was the overriding emphasis on the political warfare system.
Actually, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) believes that Taiwan and “mainland China” are both part of China, insisting there is “one China under the Constitution.” They are committed to eventual unification and the idea of “one China, with each side having its own interpretation.” Given that, one cannot fault the logic behind saying that the ROC Army and the PLA are both “Chinese armies.” Ma’s ire is, anyway, more informed by realpolitik than it is by logic.
Before 1990 no one would have batted a political eyelid if you said both militaries were Chinese, because during the System of Mobilization for the Suppression of the Communist Rebellion that was exactly how the situation was characterized, albeit in legal terms as opposing armies facing off in a civil war scenario. The ROC Army was expected to suppress the mutinous PLA.
At the time, the armed forces were expected to subscribe to five main loyalties: to creed, leadership, country, duty and glory. True, both militaries served China, and yet there was the creed, the Three Principles of the People, which took precedence over country, standing in opposition to communist ideology. Loyalty to country also came after loyalty to the leadership, to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) in their struggle against Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and the “communist bandits.” In these terms the two armies, and what they stood for, were clearly differentiated.
Both Chiangs and Mao are dead and buried and Taiwan is no longer engaged in the suppression of communist rebellion. The ruling party has gone from opposing the communists to a more conciliatory and even pro-China stance. During this process, the lines dividing the two militaries have blurred. The emergence of the Taiwanese independence movement in the seat of one of these militaries pulled the two even closer, newly unified in a common interest, with some officers following the lead of former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) in allying with the communists against the pro-independence faction.
Military officers were unhappy with the pro--localization policies of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), their sense of being adrift reinforced by the pro-independence leanings during the Chen administration. Battered and bruised, they pinned their hopes on Ma. Indeed Ma, on taking office, did work toward conciliation with China and finally it seemed the dark days were over. From this point they started visiting China in droves.
During the Chen years, when they were very much opposed to the whole pro-independence movement, retired military officials lost a sense of whom they were fighting. Now that the ruling party has moved to a pro-China position, the question in their minds is why.
The problem is, the chummier Ma gets with Beijing, the more uncomfortable the public gets, and the more they want him to change direction. According to a survey by Global Views Monthly, a mere four months into his presidency, support for unification with China should conditions on either side of the Taiwan Strait be similar had fallen 20 percent for the first time and it is now hovering at about 12 percent. Support for the counter to the original proposition hit the 60 percent mark for the first time at that fourth month mark, and it now stands at almost 70 percent. This poses a threat to Ma’s re-election bid, forcing him to change tack on military procurements and to criticize Beijing over the WHA incident.
Beijing was incensed when former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) director Richard Bush, the man who had pushed Chen to announce the “four noes,” assurances including not adding the doctrine of special state-to-state relations to the Constitution, suddenly advocated “two Chinas.”
Although Ma responded by emphasizing that cross-strait relations were not based on a state-to-state footing, Beijing took the unusual step of plastering the Hsia story all over the media to force Ma to clearly show where he stands on the issue.
In such a situation, Ma had no choice but to comment, and since Hsia didn’t tag along on his merry U-turn, he was obliged to berate the retired general for turning his back on Taiwan. However, this wasn’t the only thing that left Hsia feeling, as he said, disheartened. When Ma launched his campaign headquarters there was a colorful sign on the wall saying “Go! Taiwan!” and Ma called for the protection of the sovereignty of the “republic,” omitting to qualify the name with “of China.”
Bush said that “two Chinas” is the only formulation which really conforms to reality. The KMT has maintained the idea of “one China” to reflect the reality of two governments claiming to represent China. In 1990, Lee completed the National Unification Guidelines, suggested “one China, with each side having its own interpretation” and created the Additional Articles to the Constitution, saying that the mainland and the free area both come under the Constitution of “one China.” This created a framework specifically to reconcile the conflict between the reality and the imagined.
Ma has continued where Lee left off with this framework, although he has been much more pro-China. He has allowed himself to get caught right in the middle, between the retired generals and the public, between those with a sentimental attachment to an imagined China and those with a patriotic pride in a real Taiwan, in a conflict brought sharply into focus by the Hsia incident. One side is disheartened, the other worried, and that “beautiful strategy” on cross-strait issues he has been so proud of since taking office seems to have lost its luster.
Has Ma screwed up? Not really. In the framework in which our national identity is defined, instigated by Lee, adopted by the KMT and continued by Ma, he is but a pawn.
Lin Cho-shui is a former Democratic Progressive Party legislator.
TRANSLATED BY PAUL COOPER
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