Older generations of Taiwanese do not like to eat spicy food, which is reflected in the saying that someone who likes spicy food is not respectful toward their parents.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is offering up a plate of hot peppers, and it is not to the liking of the public. KMT presidential hopeful Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), the “Little Red Pepper,” has abandoned the sacred “one China, different interpretations” formula that the party has used to deceive and suppress Taiwanese, so it is not surprising to see pro-localization members of the KMT jumping ship.
The Little Red Pepper speaks without thinking, and this might be to the liking of Taiwan’s generation of Chinese diaspora. However, her reasoning is not clear: She says she believes in the KMT’s “theory,” that she accepts China’s “one China” concept and offers the “same interpretation” as they do.
She also says that we must not say the Republic of China (ROC) exists. Perhaps President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Hung are the only two politicians who are so befuddled that they cannot distinguish between “different” and “same.”
The two belong to a generation who grew up when anything the party-state said was gospel, and they are able polemicists steeped in the same mold. They are intimately familiar with the party-state dogma and the “Chinese nation,” both of which they speak about with such righteousness. Such is the stuff of which KMT “talent” is made.
Amid the wave of defections and opposition to Hung within the KMT, the only response that she can come up with is sophistry, saying that she is part of the orthodox faction, in favor of the ROC and not in pursuit of rapid unification.
The question is, how can anyone believe a person who has just offered up the “one China, same interpretation” formula and said that we must not say the ROC exists, when she follows up on that tirade by claiming she is in favor of the ROC? And how can someone who cannot wait to sign a cross-strait peace agreement and accept China’s “peaceful unification” not be in favor of rapid unification?
Even more preposterous is that she claims to be part of the “orthodox faction.” Among the KMT’s intra-party factions, there is a pro-localization and a pro-China faction, a mainstream and a non-mainstream faction, but there is no such thing as an orthodox and a non-orthodox faction.
President Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) used to say that “I’m also Taiwanese,” regardless of whether he meant it or not.
There is no way Hung would say: “I’m also part of the pro-localization faction.” Instead, she says that she belongs to the orthodox faction, which is the same thing as saying that the pro-localization faction is the “non-orthodox faction” or the “heretical faction.”
Seeing the pro-localization faction jump ship, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) is making a big deal about the fact that three people in Lienchiang County, in Taiwan’s Fujian Province, that previously left the party, have returned to the fold, thus “injecting new blood” into the party.
This is such a preposterous idea. Lienchiang County is the only remaining part of the old, “orthodox” ROC, and these people are certainly not part of the pro-localization faction, so what is it that Chu was so excited about?James Wang is a media commentator.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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