During his 10-day trip to the US which concludes today, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took advantage of his popularity as Taiwan's leading candidate for the next presidential election by elaborating on his concept of "Five Dos" to construct a framework for talks between Taiwan and China.
The policy calls for the resumption of talks on the basis of the so-called "1992 consensus," in which Taiwan and China supposedly agree that there is "one China" but agree to disagree on what that means. Based on that "mutual understanding," Ma would seek an interim agreement that would "formally terminate the state of hostility across the Taiwan Strait and enable the two sides to interact with each other in peace" for 30 to 50 years.
Ma also called for the normalization of economic relations with Beijing, increased Taiwanese participation in international affairs, and increased cross-strait cultural and educational exchanges. Above all, Ma would seek to maintain the cross-strait "status quo."
A careful look at Ma's much-publicized US visit reveals that it was intended to construct an image of a moderate and peace-loving leader. He repeatedly talked about how he could do a better job than President Chen Shui-bian's (
While Ma was happy to attrib-ute the recent cross-strait tension to Chen's decision to cease the functions of the National Unification Council and its guidelines, he avoided apportioning any blame to Beijing despite its missile threat. By repeatedly accusing the Chen administration of "rocking the boat," Ma portrayed himself as the only person capable of talking Beijing into accepting Taiwan as an independent, sovereign state.
On the question of why the pan-blue camp continues to boycott the arms procurement bill, Ma could conceivably offer excuses that he was taking into account Taiwan's actual defense requirements, its economic situation, the public's opinion, as well as the impact the procurement would have on cross-strait relations. In this way, he might be able to persuade the Bush administration that the current bill was unsatisfactory, without offering an alternative KMT package. In any event, Washington has not publicly expressed its dissatisfaction with Ma's failure to come up with a straight answer.
Since Taiwan's representative to the US, David Lee (
There is no doubt that, as an image-building exercise, Ma's US trip was a success. For Taiwan, however, it was a failure. It is shameful that as the leader of Taiwan's largest opposition party, Ma worked to humiliate Taiwan's elected president while he was abroad. He also downplayed the China threat and sought to focus attention on himself.
Ma's lack of integrity and courage to defend Taiwanese democracy against China's military intimidation and missile threats, as well as his deceitful attempts to frame future cross-strait negotiations around the non-existent "1992 consensus," suggests that he does not have what it takes to be a national leader.
Local media should refrain from dancing to Ma's tune and seek instead to reveal the lack of substance behind his dazzling facade. Otherwise, Taiwan risks electing a leader who is "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
Liu Kuan-teh is a Taipei-based political commentator.
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