When addressing the World Health Assembly (WHA), Minister of Health and Welfare Lin Tzou-yien (林奏延) referred to Taiwan as “Chinese Taipei” rather than “Taiwan.” A few days later, he announced that he had submitted a letter of protest on the first day of the meeting to the WHO’s legal adviser who passed it on to WHO Director-General Margaret Chan (陳馮富珍).
Addressing her government’s “first diplomatic battle,” President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) praised the delegation to the WHA for “overcoming several obstacles to complete its mission.”
Is that likely to please the nation’s masters?
As Tsai said when she was sworn in as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leader: “The public do not want to see another Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT], and they do not even want to see the Democratic Progressive Party that led the previous DPP government. We must force ourselves to become a different political party if we want to create a different Taiwan: We must be passionate, but not overzealous, cool, but not cold.”
Is that likely to satisfy the nation’s masters?
In light of Lin’s talk about “Chinese Taipei” and “loving Taiwan,” Tsai’s inaugural address and the Cabinet’s personnel arrangements, it is easy to see that the DPP has changed some.
During the previous DPP administration, then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) talked about “four noes and one not,” but at least his discourse on Taiwanese sovereignty was crystal clear, and although his UN bid failed, he alerted the international community to Taiwan’s national aspirations. In addition, throughout his presidency he denied the existence of the so-called “1992 consensus.”
His administration’s biggest failure was that the political machinations that diverted the focus toward the end of his term, created massive international pressure. The KMT controlled the legislature, and former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) — then KMT chairman — wielded the party whip with such vigor that the party repeatedly blocked an arms purchase bill. However, rejecting Chen’s administration outright based on these events would be proof of lack of self-confidence.
Furthermore, Premier Lin Chuan (林全) has said that the occupation of the Executive Yuan during the Sunflower movement in 2014 was a “political incident” and that charges against about 100 students are to be dropped.
What lay behind the Sunflower movement, the protests against the nontransparent handling of the high school curriculum guidelines and the protests against the death of army corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘)?
Were not all these events started by students who had developed the ability to think freely and independently following the first DPP administration’s introduction of curriculum guidelines focused on localized education and moving away from brainwashing, as well as introducing new channels of entering higher education?
In addition, the move to correct the names of official institutions stimulated civic awareness and boosted identification with Taiwan, leading to the “228 Hand-in-Hand Rally” on Feb 28, 2004, when 2 million people formed a 487km-long human chain from Keelung to Oluanpi to protest against the ballistic missiles China aims at Taiwan.
This democratic support and intensified national identification went underground during the Ma administration. However, in the elections of 2014 and this year, it returned — handing complete power to the DPP.
The previous DPP administration was labeled isolationist. China took an unfriendly attitude toward it, the US showed a complete lack of understanding and the KMT was obstructionist. In the eight years following Chen’s administration, Ma and his government pulled out all the stops as it turned toward China, signing 23 cross-strait agreements and capping it all off with a meeting between Ma and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
The result of all this was that while under Chen’s administration, the economy grew by an average of 4.8 percent — despite the SARS epidemic and the dot-com crash — which was higher than the global average of 4.5 percent. Average economic growth during the Ma years stopped at 2.8 percent following the financial crisis and the EU debt crisis, lower than the global average of 3.3 percent. Every economic indicator flashed red and real wages dropped to the level they were at 16 years earlier.
Thinking back to those bittersweet times, do people prefer the Ma years or the Chen years?
It cannot be denied that the DPP was inexperienced during the Chen government and that some of the administration tried to enrich themselves. In addition, the opposition continued to hold the legislative majority and the governing team lacked vision.
The “three small links” and the loosening of restrictions on 8-inch wafer plant investments in China were the result of falling for the same illusion as Ma’s administration and it intensified the gutting of Taiwanese industry.
In addition, the restrictive Referendum Act (公民投票法) and constitutional amendments only benefiting the two main political parties were two other areas where democracy deteriorated.
Above all, certain actions reinforced the public perception of corruption, with the result that Ma — who had no achievements to boast of during his time as mayor of Taipei — easily won the 2008 presidential election.
With the DPP back in control and backed by a stable public majority, these mistakes must be understood and avoided — rather than just flatly rejecting all past policies, including the things that were done right.
The DPP for the first time controls both the executive and legislative branches, and its first order of business has been to push for transitional justice, pension reform and judicial reform. However, the ability to pull industry and the economy away from the current China focus and make up for eight years of lost growth in living standards is set to be the litmus test for determining whether the Tsai administration will be able to stimulate new growth momentum and improve economic vitality and autonomy.
As civic awareness is growing, and as the younger generation is beginning to think of Taiwanese independence as a natural state of affairs, the national leadership must be able to explain what kind of nation it wants as it focuses on solving problems one at a time.
Sidestepping the issue of whether the Chen administration was successful, the impression it left behind was of a DPP that promotes the idea that there is one nation on each side of the Taiwan Strait. If the current DPP administration turns out to maintain the kind of “status quo” that is focused on “Chinese Taipei,” the question is how future generations will compare it with Chen’s DPP administration.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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