The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) annual forums with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have obviously reached an impasse, prompting former KMT secretary-general Lee Shu-chuan (李四川) — in a report on party reform after holding 21 forums with the party’s grassroots supporters and local cadres nationwide over the past month — to propose the abolition of the exchanges.
Initiated by then-KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and then-Chinese president Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) during Lien’s 2005 “ice-breaking” visit to Beijing, the forum has been held since 2006, with the KMT touting it as a party-to-party communication platform that assists the development of cross-strait ties. At the end of each forum, consensuses were reached on topics relating to agricultural affairs, trade and cultural and educational exchanges, “providing a reference to formulating policies for both governments.”
However, it became apparent that the real purpose of the forums — billed as cultural and economic in nature — was to promote China’s goal of unification when then-KMT chairman and head of the KMT delegation to last year’s forum Eric Chu (朱立倫) said that both sides of the Taiwan Strait “belong to one China.”
It is clear that the forum operates in an opaque manner and works against the democratic process. Not only was a KMT official who was not part of the national government discussing matters of fundamental national importance with China without the mandate of the Taiwanese public, but Taiwan’s democracy has been further eroded by the KMT and China attempting to make decisions on cross-strait relations and developments via a party-to-party mechanism that excludes the Taiwanese electorate.
Over the past 10 years the forum has demonstrated to Taiwanese that it is not simply a meeting between two political parties but an opportunity for high-ranking KMT officials to fawn over Beijing officials who are attempting to determine Taiwan’s cross-strait policies and dictate cross-strait developments.
It often follows a similar pattern: Issues brought up during the KMT-CCP forum and shortly after prompt Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) to draw up and sign agreements.
In other words, the forum has seemingly become a sharp point that China uses to prod President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
While Ma has said that everything decided at the forums must be approved by the government and agreed to by the SEF and ARATS, the then-KMT-dominated legislature often appeared to blindly endorse any agreements by the two agencies.
In short, the government’s authority seems to have been usurped, with the forums setting the agenda for cross-strait development.
The Ma administration’s submissive attitude toward China has caused public discontent, and the electorate made their displeasure felt in January’s elections by handing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) a landslide victory.
After the KMT became a “true opposition” party — by losing the presidency and a majority in the legislature — the forum is likely to no longer play the role of setting the cross-strait agenda.
Now that the KMT’s grassroots and local cadres have recognized the public’s anger and called for the abolition of these opaque forums, the top echelon of the KMT must have the wisdom to acquiesce.
Taiwan has lost Trump. Or so a former State Department official and lobbyist would have us believe. Writing for online outlet Domino Theory in an article titled “How Taiwan lost Trump,” Christian Whiton provides a litany of reasons that the William Lai (賴清德) and Donald Trump administrations have supposedly fallen out — and it’s all Lai’s fault. Although many of Whiton’s claims are misleading or ill-informed, the article is helpfully, if unintentionally, revealing of a key aspect of the MAGA worldview. Whiton complains of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s “inability to understand and relate to the New Right in America.” Many
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier this month raised its travel alert for China’s Guangdong Province to Level 2 “Alert,” advising travelers to take enhanced precautions amid a chikungunya outbreak in the region. More than 8,000 cases have been reported in the province since June. Chikungunya is caused by the chikungunya virus and transmitted to humans through bites from infected mosquitoes, most commonly Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. These species thrive in warm, humid climates and are also major vectors for dengue, Zika and yellow fever. The disease is characterized by high fever and severe, often incapacitating joint pain.
In nature, there is a group of insects known as parasitoid wasps. Their reproductive process differs entirely from that of ordinary wasps — the female lays her eggs inside or on the bodies of other insects, and, once hatched, the larvae feed on the host’s body. The larvae do not kill the host insect immediately; instead, they carefully avoid vital organs, allowing the host to stay alive until the larvae are fully mature. That living reservoir strategy ensures a stable and fresh source of nutrients for the larvae as they grow. However, the host’s death becomes only a matter of time. The resemblance
Most countries are commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with condemnations of militarism and imperialism, and commemoration of the global catastrophe wrought by the war. On the other hand, China is to hold a military parade. According to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency, Beijing is conducting the military parade in Tiananmen Square on Sept. 3 to “mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.” However, during World War II, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) had not yet been established. It