The Black Hawk crash on Thursday last week that killed eight military officers, including the chief of the general staff, was a national tragedy that should not be made light of in any way.
Initially, it looked like that would prove to be the case.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and all the legislative candidates acted appropriately by suspending their campaign activities.
The US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley on Friday last week extended his condolences, while the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) flew the US national flag at half-mast at its compound in Taipei for a day and pledged to offer any assistance to Taiwan.
Then the inappropriate comments started.
It is utterly shameless to use such a tragic event involving officers who have sworn to protect this nation — or any death at all — to further one’s political agenda, but as the presidential campaign has shown, people seem to have trouble keeping their mouths shut.
While many politicians offered their sympathy on Thursday last week, New Party spokesman Wang Ping-chung (王炳忠) took the opportunity to attack Tsai by inexplicably linking the accident to allegations of “green terror” and urged Taiwan to lay down its arms.
Wang’s pro-China political stance has long been clear and he has accused the government of waging a “green terror” campaign many times — but taking advantage of such tragic deaths is just wrong.
The Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) reported that independent Taipei City Councilor Chung Hsiao-ping (鍾小平), a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member, on Friday last week said that the AIT’s flag gesture showed that it supported Tsai in the presidential election and constituted an attack on the KMT that would doom it for eternity.
Chung also insinuated on the same political talk show that the AIT’s gesture was part of the US’ strategy against China.
However, while the US and its officials were respectful, how did China, which calls Taiwanese its compatriots and family, react to the tragedy?
The state-run Global Times criticized Taiwan’s military capabilities and claimed: “Once China decides to liberate Taiwan by force, can these Black Hawks serve as a barrier?”
Those comments sparked an Internet furor and fueled more public anger against Beijing, but they were just the latest example of China shooting itself in the foot when it comes to Taiwan.
If Beijing wants to influence the elections in its favor, this is totally the wrong way to do it.
Then Han also crossed the line.
The KMT presidential candidate, who has been engaging in all kinds of outlandish statements and behavior of late, on Sunday brought up the accident during a campaign event, apparently just to add it to his list of Taiwan’s recent misfortunes.
He later said that his comment “Is Taiwan possessed?” was taken out of context, but he was clearly trying to use the tragedy to rally his supporters.
The Ministry of National Defense on Sunday afternoon issued a statement asking all parties to please respect the ministry and refrain from taking advantage of it for electioneering purposes.
Mudslinging and negative campaigning are quite common before elections in Taiwan, national and local, and the ugliness so far has not been surprising.
However, there are lines that should not be crossed.
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