The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is incapable of anything but scheming and plotting, and forming factions. It is conforming to its own “orthodoxy,” rejecting anyone who holds another opinion.
The long-running conflict between the party’s local factions and the Huang Fu-hsing (黃復興) branch has been transformed into a standoff between the factions seen as loyal to former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) and Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙).
KMT chairman-elect Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) is falling back on the support of local factions by claiming to have been handpicked and trained by Chiang; clearly falling into the Chiang Ching-kuo faction.
KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and her supporters look down on local factions; they fall into the “Sun Academy” faction.
The Sun Yat-sen supporters who think that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) are one and the same make up their own faction.
Given the current political situation, it is easy to see which of these two factions — Chiang Ching-kuo or Sun Yat-sen — holds an advantage.
Wu might not be the best of the best, but at least he understands that there are people in the pan-blue camp who feel emotionally connected to Chiang, which is very different from their dislike for Chiang’s father, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) — whose statue can be seen in far too many places as if he were some kind of god — nor does he leave people cold as Sun does.
Wu likes to shed a tear whenever he mentions Chiang Ching-kuo, which improves his standing, but does nothing to accentuate his skills or talent. It only highlights injustice and recklessness within the KMT.
Wu, who was born in Nantou County, moved to Taipei after graduating from university, where he worked as a reporter on the city politics beat for a few years before he was elected to the Taipei City Council. This shows that he was a good party-state servant, not whether he was particularly talented.
The dangwai (黨外, “outside the party”) struggle won public support and sympathy because the party-state system did not allow the establishment of other political parties or open and fair elections, while anyone nominated by the KMT would be guaranteed of election.
The KMT used a younger Wu to deceive the younger generation of the time, but this trick only works once. He entered the workforce when “the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek” were expelled from the UN and the ROC lost its status as “the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations.”
When Chiang Ching-kuo took over as premier and was forming his Cabinet, he wanted to include Taiwanese to “reform and safeguard Taiwan,” and Wu came in handy as a token example.
Today’s younger generation are pro-independence because the Taiwan they know is a de facto independent nation. They have no contact with the “Sun faction” whose favorite slogan is “one China, same interpretation.” They see through the KMT and understand that the party no longer has the money and political clout to produce a 25-year-old Wu clone.
If Wu, who is 70 years old next year, wants to use Chiang Ching-kuo to deceive the younger generation, he cannot only talk about how he was “handpicked” by the former president: at the very least, he must emulate Chiang Ching-kuo’s policy to “reform and safeguard Taiwan” and protect it from being gobbled up by China.
Anything less than would not be enough to attract the younger generation.
James Wang is a media commentator.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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