Under Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule, the government habitually and unrealistically equated focusing on China with focusing on globalization, hiding behind the sacred “1992 consensus.” Now that it is in opposition, the KMT is accusing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government of being a troublemaker for refusing to be held hostage by China and by a policy that allows Beijing to do as it pleases, and for pragmatically trying to put an end to Taiwan’s diplomatic problems.
However, following the KMT’s defeats in 2014’s nine-in-one elections and this year’s presidential and legislative elections, most Taiwanese are clearly opposed to the KMT. Not only is there no longer a market for the deceitful “1992 consensus,” but an attempt to label the DPP as a troublemaker has also failed.
Why should the situation be different in the international community?
‘TROUBLEMAKER’
During an interview with Voice of America on June 22 and also during a speech on Saturday last week, American Institute in Taiwan Chairman Raymond Burghardt unambiguously said that in 1992, then-Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫) and then-Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits chairman Wang Daohan (汪道涵) did not mention a “1992 consensus” during their meeting. This is clearly a warning to the people clinging to the fabricated “1992 consensus.”
An article published in Newsweek Japan on June 7 by Project 2049 Institute research fellow Ian Easton said in no uncertain terms that the troublemaker in the Taiwan Strait is Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), not President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). Quite the slap in the face of the KMT, which is trying to stick that label on Tsai.
Furthermore, Panamanian and Paraguayan media have addressed Tsai as “the president of Taiwan” in their reports during her visit, and when European and US politicians talk about the nation, they talk about “Taiwan.”
When have they ever mentioned the detestable Republic of China (ROC) or “Chinese Taipei?”
SINCERITY
Instead, the KMT — which is on its last leg and whose politicians talk insincerely about being Taiwanese and loving Taiwan during elections in an attempt to win a few more votes — treats the word “Taiwan” as if it were toxic.
When Tsai signed a guest book in Panama on Sunday last week, writing “President of Taiwan (ROC),” the KMT legislative caucus criticized her of belittling the nation.
According to the KMT, they are not belittling Taiwan when they talk about “Chinese Taipei” and “Taipei economic and trade offices,” but the DPP is when it calls a spade a spade and says “Taiwan”?
What kind of skewed logic is that?
If it is anyone who does not fit in in Taiwan, it is those who have made the choice to live here and are unwilling to live in China and become proper, upright Chinese, but continue to sell out Taiwan or expect Taiwanese to become Chinese.
However, the message coming from Taiwanese public opinion and the nation’s international allies is loud and clear: Tsai is the president of Taiwan, the “1992 consensus” is a fabrication and it is the leader of China who is the troublemaker in the Taiwan Strait, not the leader of Taiwan.
How long will it be before the KMT understands this and stops dancing to China’s tune?
Chang Kuo-tsai is a retired associate professor at National Hsinchu University of Education.
Translated by Perry Svensson
The White House’s decision to take a 9.9 percent stake in Intel Corp is looking like very shrewd business indeed. Since the government bought in at US$20.47 a share last August, the US chipmaker’s surging stock price has delivered the US a US$43 billion return. One of the reasons the investment has so far proved so sound is that the White House has made sure of it. According to The Wall Street Journal, Howard personally pushed deals on Intel’s behalf with some of the most lucrative clients imaginable. They include Nvidia Corp, the company at the heart of the AI
A single photograph can cut through a lot of noise, but it can also be used to misrepresent the truth. At the very least, it can concentrate the mind on something that requires further investigation. On Monday last week, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation CEO Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) and former National Security Council secretary-general King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) held a news conference in which they showed a photograph of former foundation CEO Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑), now Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) deputy chairman. In the image Hsiao is seated next to Xiamen Taiwan Businessmen Association chairman Han Ying-huan (韓螢煥). The two men were holding
I first met Professor Ray Jiing (井迎瑞) as a film and documentary student at Shih Hsin University’s (SHU) Department of Radio Television and Film in 1988. The following year, he went on to become the director of the Chinese Taipei Film Archive — forerunner of the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI). Over his eight-year tenure, Jiing rescued and restored over 200 classic Taiwanese films. In 1997, he established the Graduate Institute of Studies in Documentary and Film Archiving at Tainan National University of the Arts (TNNUA), and I joined the program in his third cohort of students. Beyond a
A recent report concerning a student who is suing his teacher posed the question in its headline: Does failing a student in two subjects constitute bullying? The college student in Chiayi County apparently sought NT$2 million (US$63,603) in state compensation, but a court dismissed the case. The first reaction of many might have been to ask: What has happened to students nowadays? Some say that teachers have lost their authority, while others say students are overindulged. Some even start reminiscing over the days when “whatever the teacher says goes.” However, the real issue might be overlooked if emotional reactions like that are the
RSS