The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Thursday confirmed that it is to hire a consultant who was a Chinese official tasked with pursuing the nation’s unification with China.
KMT Central Policy Committee director Alex Tsai (蔡正元) said that former deputy general secretary of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) Wang Xiaobing (王小兵) will be hired as a consultant for the party’s Sun Yat-sen Memorial Library Foundation.
Tsai said the aim is to better understand how information about the party’s history is used by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).
Wang’s work over the past 30 years has focused on Taiwan, Tsai said, adding that he is familiar with the nation’s political situation.
Aside from his former post with ARATS Wang has also worked for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), Tsai said.
The move to hire Wang as a consultant has drawn fire from critics, who have pointed to Wang’s role in advocating unification as part of his role with the TAO.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) said the KMT appears to be using every avenue at its disposal to bolster ties with China.
The foundation is likely one of the platforms the KMT has used in building those ties, Tsai Yi-yu said, adding that if the foundation has any connection with the KMT, it is inappropriate to hire Wang as a consultant for its operations.
Tsai Yi-yu said that the KMT once protested against an assertion by China that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the legitimate successor to Republic of China founding father Sun Yat-sen’s (孫逸仙) political ideas.
“Now that it has ‘had its hand on China’s knee’ it has become soft. Now the KMT even wants to hand Sun Yat-sen’s altar over to the communists,” Tsai Yi-yu said.
DPP Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) said it was important to maintain the correct perspective when working with Chinese officials.
“If that is lost from a party’s history, then the party is as good as over,” Tsai Shih-ying said.
Alex Tsai said that Wang’s job would not involve formal employment with the foundation.
He said he hopes the library can benefit from Wang’s experience.
Alex Tsai denied accusations that the foundation has sold artifacts from its history museum to China, saying that it has only engaged in academic exchanges with Chinese counterparts.
Alex Tsai said the party’s historical artifacts have always remained in storage or in the museum, adding that in the past it has digitized documents for the CASS, Stanford University, Hong Kong University and the National Taiwan University at the request of those institutions.
The cost of those services was paid for by those institutions, Alex Tsai said, adding that the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Library Foundation would never allow the artifacts to be moved from the museum or its library at National Chengchi University.
The foundation was established in 1994 and is headed by KMT Culture and Communications Committee director Chow Chi-wai (周志偉)
It has registered assets of NT$10 million (US$313,254).
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