The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) both promote their own interpretations of China.
After China was divided into two in 1949, the terms “nationalist spy” and “communist spy” — before that, the latter were called “bandit spies” — became accusations that the two sides hurled at each other, sometimes even resulting in execution.
This situation does not appear to have changed very much. The KMT and the CCP might appear to be getting along fine, but the two sides continue to aim their military deployments at each other, and they still treat each other as spies.
In Taiwan, the Mainland Affairs Council is using the Straits Exchange Foundation as its intermediary when dealing with “Communist China,” and in China, the Taiwan Affairs Office is using the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) as its go-between when dealing with nationalist China.
Both sides have ulterior motives: China wants the death of “Nationalist China” and to regain control over the whole of “China.” The KMT frequently begs for favors while at the same time fearing getting hurt. The two are fighting the same enemy: the efforts to transform Taiwan into a normalized country.
Historically speaking, Nationalist China and the CCP are a pretty pair. This particular juxtaposition is the result of the KMT’s occupation of Taiwan, which, with the help of the US’ Cold War front line, divided the two sides along the Taiwan Strait and allowed the KMT to remain in Taiwan.
China is the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and Nationalist China is the remaining fragment of a fiction that remains in Taiwan, the China that the KMT sees as its lifeblood and the China that could help the KMT contain a Taiwan that longs for independence in the place of China.
This plan is, in fact, not at all helpful to the party-state forces that fled China for Taiwan, although this is not what these party-state elites are thinking.
To them, Taiwan is of great benefit as an important bargaining chip. The KMT, which has so fundamentally monopolized government power, thinks that as long as it keeps wearing the China hat, the CCP will let it rule in its place and control this “quasi-nation” that only wants to be rescued from China, any China, nationalist or communist.
One Nationalist China official who doubled as foundation secretary-general and council deputy minister was suddenly accused of being a Chinese “communist bandit.”
Communist China calls all the shots today, and no one listens to Nationalist China. If you want to catch a communist spy, there are plenty of retired officials and generals hiding behind every corner in China.
There are no benefits left for them in Taiwan, so now they are making their fortunes in China. Talking of which, it is about time that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) told us what his plans are.
Lee Min-yung is a poet.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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