Wed, Jul 19, 2017 page8

• Parsing a ‘shared community of destiny’

  • By Lee Min-yung 李敏勇
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  While at the Taipei-Shanghai Forum early this month, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) crossed the line by making inappropriate remarks about the nature of cross-strait relations, saying the two sides of the Taiwan Strait were “one close family” and “a shared community of destiny.”

  Ko might not have made the remarks to please Beijing, but the case highlighted the confused political ideologies of certain politicians. Perhaps Ko tried to portray a simple and honest image to distinguish himself from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), but he was neither simple nor honest. Instead, he was somewhat opportunistic, and that was unhelpful for the nation’s path toward reconstruction.

  A shared community has an active sense of “family” and “nation”; families are the core of society, while the nation represents society as a whole.

  They both display the quality of a shared community. This is a cultural concept. However, it can also be extended and developed into a political concept.

  For the shaping of a “nation state” the formation of the ideology of a shared community of destiny is essential.

  In Taiwan’s case, the sense of a shared community of destiny was first proposed during the political reforms in the late 1980s and early 1990s. After professor of history Cheng Chin-jen (鄭欽仁) initiated this view, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) added their opinions, elaborating on Taiwan’s political foundation as a state built by the old and new generations, despite their order of arrival.

  Many of the Chinese who were exiled to Taiwan follow the KMT’s party-state ideology and find it difficult to depart from the fictitious Republic of China (ROC), which is a fragmentary remainder of China, while struggling in the national discourse of another country, as they do today. Even though a shared community of destiny is a constructive message built on good intentions, they do not truly accept it.

  After undergoing democratization and holding its first direct presidential election in 1996, the ROC in Taiwan has not yet become a normal country. This is precisely where the problem lies in the power struggles between the pan-blues and pan-greens.

  Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is anxious in the face of the democratic, fragmentary remainder of a fictitious “China in Taiwan.”

  It has attempted to disunite the new national ideology of this shared community of destiny by luring and recruiting supporters of the ROC party-state through its united-front work.

  Ideas such as the two sides being “one close family” and “Chinese should not attack Chinese” are feudalistic and outdated. They ignore Taiwan as a major political entity and a modern “nation state.”

  Local politicians would lose their dignity if they echoed Beijing’s “united front” work.

  The deadlock between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China, or “communist China,” lies in Beijing’s insistence on annexing the ROC, despite Taiwan already having transformed itself from the “KMT China.”

  Unfortunately, those supporting the fragmentary remainder of a fictitious China — the ROC — are colliding with Beijing. No wonder the KMT has lost the support of the public.

  There is still a way to go before we can complete the formation of a shared Taiwanese community. However, as Taiwan and China are different countries, how can they ever be a shared community of destiny?

  Politicians’ words reflect their thoughts and talking nonsense is either frivolous or malicious. This falls short of the public’s expectations and support. As China continues to oppress Taiwan, local politicians should act with principle to win others’ respect.

  Lee Min-yung is a poet.

  Translated by Eddy Chang
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