The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is about to enter a new era after former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) on Saturday won the six-way chair election with 144,408 votes, or 52.24 percent of the votes cast, and is scheduled to take office on Aug. 20.
The election and its result stood out in several ways.
First, the election was held against the backdrop of the KMT truly being an opposition party for the first time in its history. Therefore, the candidates could not enjoy any additional resources or support from the KMT headquarters that might have otherwise exploited or abused the nation’s administrative resources, and allowed it to play favorites with the candidates.
The party experienced intra-party democracy for the first time, as each candidate vied for support on their own merits and not through aides or support from party headquarters.
The candidates had to mingle with the party’s grassroots to win their support, which allowed them to hear complaints and suggestions from members first-hand, as well as their apprehensions and expectations.
Second, that KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and KMT Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) have close links with veterans meant that votes from the party’s Huang Fu-hsing (黃復興) branch, whose members are military veterans or their family members, were diluted among the party’s pro-unification faction.
Third, Wu’s victory shows the strength of the party’s so-called pro-localization faction.
“ If you want to be unified [with China,] you can realize that immediately. All you need to do is move to China’s Fuzhou or Shanghai and you would be unified. Why drag along [Taiwan’s] 23 million people?,” Wu said during the campaign.
Although he later toned down his rhetoric, the statement made him the first KMT heavyweight to try to explain reality to party members.
Wu’s victory suggests that KMT members voted out Hung’s “one China, same interpretation” formula.
Fourth, the result also revealed the split between KMT members who accept the “status quo” and favor the “Republic of China independence,” and those who favor “eventual unification” with China, as advocated by Hung.
In a congratulatory letter to Wu, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) rehashed the so-called “1992 consensus” and called for opposition to Taiwanese independence.
However, Wu was quick to say that “in 1992, the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party reached the conclusion that both sides of the Taiwan Strait should adhere to the ‘one China’ principle, but both sides orally agreed to make its own interpretation of what that means.”
Wu said that his understanding of the “1992 consensus” encompasses the notion that “both sides orally agreed to make its own interpretation of what that means.”
Wu’s statement is an improvement that sets him apart from many KMT politicians who dare not tell Beijing that “different interpretations” is a necessary entailment of the “1992 consensus.”
Wu, who was born in Taiwan, hails from the grassroots and is therefore considered more approachable than many of his predecessors.
If Wu’s latest actions are any indication, we hope that he would, like former president and KMT chairman Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), try to restart the process of nativization of the KMT, adopt a “Taiwan first” perspective and transform the party to become more Taiwan-centric.
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