Su’s misuse of fear factor
Two days after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) registered to take part in the DPP presidential primary, Taipei Forum chairman Su Chi (蘇起) rushed to “predict” that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) would take action before the election if he believes that the DPP presidential candidate would hurt the stability of ties across the Taiwan Strait (“Xi would act if candidate menaces PRC ties: Su Chi,” Feb. 18, page 3).
Su was the fabricator of the “1992 consensus” that has been controversial ever since, apparently because of the lack of an official document. However, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) misused this as a threat to the safety of Taiwanese to benefit their presidential elections in 2008 and 2012.
This time, the warning by Su to Taiwanese is quicker and more severe than the “1992 consensus.” According to Su, “Xi would take action before the election.”
It is hard to believe that Xi, who received his postgraduate education in the US, would take such a drastic action against Taiwanese. If he did as Su said, he would be as bad as General Tojo of Japan and Adolf Hitler during the World War II. Furthermore, Taiwanese would consider Chinese communists much worse than the Chinese Nationalists who were responsible for the 228 Incident in 1947 and 38 years of martial law.
No candidate in Taiwan would or could menace ties with China or any other countries in the world. It is a historical fact Taiwan has been separated by force from China for 120 years. After more than a century, conquering Taiwan by force again is not a civilized means or a solution acceptable to 23 million Taiwanese or the rest of the world.
Taiwanese hope to have peaceful and fair elections on Jan. 16 next year and smooth transitions of presidential and legislative powers.
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
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