When former Hon Hai Precision Industry chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘), who announced that he would not to run in next year’s presidential election, declared his intention to leave the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Cheng Mei-hua (程美華) immediately set about trying to tar his name.
Cheng said that when Gou had accepted his honorary status as a party member, he had been extremely deferential to statues of past KMT leaders, such as former presidents Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), and Republic of China (ROC) founder Sun Yat-sen (孫中山).
Cheng asked whether he was disrespecting the deceased leaders he had only recently shown such deference to.
Breakups can be messy affairs, so resentment is understandable. However, it is a bit much when people in today’s KMT accuse others of disrespecting past party leaders.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), when he was working for Chiang Ching-kuo, held a US green card. If he was prepared to show disrespect to a leader who was still living, is it such a stretch to believe he could disrespect a deceased one now?
In 2015, former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) attended a military parade in Beijing marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second Sino-Japanese war and the next year, retired lieutenant general Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷) led 32 retired generals — with 53 stars between them — to Beijing with former KMT vice chairman Chan Chun-po (詹春柏) and former party secretary-general Hsu Shui-teh (許水德), where they were seen listening to a speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
This was a far cry from Chiang Kai-shek’s sentiment that “gentlemen do not stand together with thieves.”
Wu was also guilty of attending an event in Beijing with retired air force general Hsia Ying-chou (夏瀛洲) and former deputy minister of national defense Wang Wen-hsieh (王文燮), at which they joined Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) generals and sang about how the ROC military and the PLA were all “one Chinese army.”
Apparently, they have reinterpreted Chiang Ching-kuo’s policy of “no direct contact, no negotiation and no compromise” as “no need to negotiate, let us just surrender outright.”
If their behavior was not disrespectful of former party leaders, I have no idea what is.
Then there was Ma meeting Xi in Singapore and allowing himself to be demoted from “president Ma” to “Mr Ma.”
Where were all the proud references to the ROC and “one China, with each side having its own interpretation”? In Singapore, to Xi’s face, Ma bottled it.
Not only was there direct contact, there was also compromise, in complete disregard of what Ma’s former boss had insisted upon. Surely, this too could be deemed disrespect.
Today, in this “century-old party,” KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) commands little respect, while the more conventional Eric Chu (朱立倫), the former New Taipei City mayor, has been sidelined as its presidential candidate to make way for Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), with his penchant for “goofing around as much as possible and milking his job for all it is worth.”
The KMT has the audacity to deride a successful business tycoon such as Gou, who has not really disrespected anyone, unlike people such as Lien, Wu Sz-huai and Ma, who are guilty of disrespecting those who came before them.
Chang Kuo-tsai is a former deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and former professor at National Tsing Hua University.
Translated by Paul Cooper
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s (李顯龍) decision to step down after 19 years and hand power to his deputy, Lawrence Wong (黃循財), on May 15 was expected — though, perhaps, not so soon. Most political analysts had been eyeing an end-of-year handover, to ensure more time for Wong to study and shadow the role, ahead of general elections that must be called by November next year. Wong — who is currently both deputy prime minister and minister of finance — would need a combination of fresh ideas, wisdom and experience as he writes the nation’s next chapter. The world that
Can US dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Beijing help avert a Taiwan Strait crisis? Or is US President Joe Biden playing into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hands? With America preoccupied with the wars in Europe and the Middle East, Biden is seeking better relations with Xi’s regime. The goal is to responsibly manage US-China competition and prevent unintended conflict, thereby hoping to create greater space for the two countries to work together in areas where their interests align. The existing wars have already stretched US military resources thin, and the last thing Biden wants is yet another war.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, people have been asking if Taiwan is the next Ukraine. At a G7 meeting of national leaders in January, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned that Taiwan “could be the next Ukraine” if Chinese aggression is not checked. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that if Russia is not defeated, then “today, it’s Ukraine, tomorrow it can be Taiwan.” China does not like this rhetoric. Its diplomats ask people to stop saying “Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow.” However, the rhetoric and stated ambition of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Taiwan shows strong parallels with