The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) priority should be to reposition itself in terms of a new triangular relationship between the US, China and Taiwan, not to scramble to come up with a new China policy following the footsteps of the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), academics said yesterday.
The DPP has probably been looking in the wrong direction in the soul-searching that followed its defeat in the Jan. 14 presidential election, Lai I-chung (賴怡忠), a researcher at Taiwan Thinktank, said at a forum organized by the Taiwan Brain Trust think tank to examine the DPP’s China policy and Taiwan-China-US relations.
Internal discussion has seen calls for the party to be “more China-friendly” and the DPP has concluded that it urgently needs a complete review of its “hawkish” China policy because of the election outcome, Lai said.
“As the former director of the party’s China Affairs Department, it was disheartening to see that the DPP failed to look at the bigger picture — the values it upholds and the policy assessments and recommendations it could offer,” he said.
The DPP should assess Beijing’s likely policy direction once Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平) takes over the leadership and Taiwan’s role in the constantly evolving triangular relationship between the Taiwan, China and the US before formulating its long-term strategy, Lai said.
Recent discussion, which focused only on the so-called “1992 consensus” and mutual dialogue between the DPP and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was both “shortsighted and narrow-minded,” said Liu Shih-chung (劉世忠), another researcher with Taiwan Brain Trust.
The DPP has lost confidence following the elections and the party seems to have forgotten it was the KMT that had been adapting in the past decade to follow in the DPP’s footsteps — in particular its narrative on Taiwanese sovereignty, Liu said.
On the dynamics of the triangular relationship, Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), former representative to the US, said that while Washington and Beijing are expected to maintain a relationship that is both competitive and cooperative in the near future, Xi’s comments during his recent US visit were a concern.
Xi categorically demanded that the US actively state its opposition to Taiwan independence, Wu said, adding that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) also publicly said Beijing’s next task would be to forge constructive relations with Taiwan’s opposition, society and people, with a focus on southern Taiwan.
“It was obvious interference in Taiwan’s domestic affairs, but the current administration has no problem with it,” Wu said.
“The comment showed that Beijing has taken the driver’s seat in cross-strait relations [after the presidential election] and will proceed to the next stage, which is to gain a commanding position in Taiwan’s internal affairs,” political analyst Chang Kuo-cheng (張國城) said, adding that it appears inevitable the CCP would begin to seize a controlling interest in Taiwan’s domestic affairs and the party “will probably look like the second ruling party in Taiwan.”
The analysts also said the DPP needed mend fences with the US after accusing Washington of interfering in the presidential election, adding that the party’s role in the recent US beef controversy could eventually be interpreted negatively by the US.
They also said that, regardless of who becomes the next DPP chairperson, they would have to maximize the party’s check-and-balance role as the main opposition, which would be pivotal in regaining people’s trust.
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