KMT Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) description of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) as "pass?" during his visit to Washington has become the focus of much attention. In fact, Lien was not really seeking to focus on Lee at all, but rather to discuss the issue raised by the title of his speech, "Taiwan and the KMT, Quo Vadis? (Where are they headed?)." But the attention that this remark has received must have left him no doubt that Lee is central to the issue.
The Lee-Lien relationship was a crucial factor in the 2000 presidential election. Lien's ancestral home is in Tainan, though he was born in Xian, China. With this joint Chinese and Taiwanese background, he was considered by some as the presidential candidate best able to promote ethnic harmony and to attract votes from different ethnic groups. But he dithered on whether to follow Lee's path and was ultimately defeated.
Now, two years on, Lee still has a love-hate relationship with the KMT. The party remains under Lee's shadow.
The KMT's feelings about Lee stem from Taiwan's ethnic sentiments. In his speech at the National Press Club in Washington, Lien complained that only those who use ethnic tensions for political ends, or those who embrace the nationalism engendered by Japanese colonial rule, would stir up the ethnic issue in every election. He accused the "pan-green" camp of fostering the notion that one either "loves Taiwan" or "betrays Taiwan" in order to attract votes. He pointed out that both he and his father married mainlanders, and that the nation's ethnic problems have dissipated as a result of intermarriage between Taiwanese and mainlanders.
The question, however, is whether it can really be said that ethnic sentiments no longer exist. The KMT has always taken ethnic considerations into account in presidential elections. Moreover, the rumor that former DPP chairman Shih Ming-te (施明德) might run for the "pan-blue" camp in the year-end mayoral election in Kaohsiung stemmed from ethnic considerations.
Past election results have proved that neither the KMT nor the PFP can expand their power south of the Chuoshui River. Lien's charge that some politicians have whipped up ethnic tensions is true. That their doing so has proven effective, however, is also true. If the KMT wants to be a party that promotes ethnic harmony, the party's candidates must prove their strength in elections.
In Washington, Lien criticized the DPP for being a pro-independence party. This was not news to US decision makers. Lien also said that more than 98 percent of Taiwan's residents are ethnically pure Chinese, and touted the KMT's notion of "one China, with each side having its own interpretation."
The George W. Bush administration, however, is one of hawks. Although the US does not wish Taiwan to risk war by declaring independence, it wouldn't necessarily welcome a swift improvement in cross-strait relations. Besides, one group of Chinese experts in Washington has openly questioned the KMT for, in its view, holding greater hostility toward the DPP than to the Chinese Communist Party. It is therefore still too early to say whether Lien's visit to the US will pay dividends to his party.
"Taiwan and the KMT: Quo Vadis?" Perhaps the song My Way -- sung by C. J. Chen (
Nadia Tsao is a US correspondent for the Liberty Times.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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