A Chinese researcher with ties to the Chinese Communist Party yesterday slammed President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policies, saying the president should avoid engaging in wishful thinking by seeking to strike a balance in relations between the US, China and Taiwan.
The space for Taiwan to seek benefits from all sides is getting narrower, Xu Bodong (徐博東), a consultant specializing in Taiwanese affairs at Beijing Union University, said in an article published by Xinhua news agency yesterday.
In the article, Xu said Ma had tried to balance issues both in the domestic and international arena.
Domestically, Ma has tried to work out issues between the pan-blue and pan-green camps by saying he wanted to be a “people’s president” and that internationally, Ma had tried to play a balancing game by pushing policies that are “at peace with China, friendly to Japan and close to the US.”
Such a policy of balancing relations to please all sides was not only contradictory, but “dramatically oversteps Taiwan’s own political power,” Xu said.
Xu said Taiwan’s room to maneuver would become smaller in the coming years and it would be difficult for it to continue in that direction.
From the start, Ma’s cross-strait policies have been ill-received by senior government officials in the US and Japan, Xu said.
Beijing, Xu wrote, has repeatedly tried to encourage and cooperate with Ma on his policy of rapprochement in the Taiwan Strait. Despite these measures, “there is some internal discontent and questions [in China] regarding Ma’s policies,” he said, adding that the discord could lead to dangers down the road.
On the alleged souring in Sino-US relations over the arms sale announced by US President Barack Obama last month, Xu said it also had a negative impact on cross-strait relations.
He said that in the long run, Ma’s policies of balancing relations, which he likened to a “game,” were bound to fail, adding that the Ma administration should therefore change its ways.
“Does the Ma administration really want to continue playing this game?” Xu asked.
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