As expected, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator-at-large Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷) has already provoked several controversies in less than two months on the job.
The retired lieutenant general’s nomination was highly questionable from the beginning, as he had sparked controversy when he attended an event in China commemorating the 150th birthday of Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) in 2016, when he sat through a speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and stood for a rendition of the Chinese national anthem.
On Tuesday last week, the Ministry of National Development reported that Chinese fighter jets were spotted near Taiwan’s air defense identification zone the previous night before being driven away by Taiwanese F-16 jets. This followed a similar mission by Chinese warplanes on Feb. 28.
While most politicians would have condemned such an incident, Wu accused the ministry of misleading the public, saying there is a “huge” difference between Chinese warplanes flying around Taiwan and aircraft intruding in the nation’s airspace, adding that the former should not be deemed provocative. He further compared the situation to US aircraft flying by Taiwan, which is just ludicrous and needs no further discussion.
While Wu might be right that there is no need to panic — which simply echoed what the ministry said — it is difficult to believe that these military training missions have nothing to do with China’s territorial ambitions toward Taiwan. There is a reason countries have their own air space, and if Chinese warplanes actually cross into Taiwanese air space, it would be a direct contravention, not a “provocation.”
Wu has said before that he simply wants China and Taiwan to interact peacefully, and that each side should refrain from provoking the other, but Beijing’s actions over the past five years — especially its continued blocking of Taiwan from participating in the WHO after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — have been far from friendly.
There is no need to speculate about the purpose of these military exercises, but keeping Taiwanese informed about the actions of an often hostile neighbor does not count as fear-mongering. Similarly, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announces the nation’s number of new COVID-19 cases on a daily basis — it is scary, but nobody is calling that fear-mongering.
Even the KMT immediately distanced itself from Wu. It said that Wu’s words do not represent the party — but who does Wu represent? Who nominated him for the position? KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) on Monday said that he would have a talk with Wu, but with the party’s image at an all-time low after its crushing defeat in January’s presidential and legislative elections, how it deals with this issue is critical to its plans to reform and reinvent the party so that it can regain its competitive edge.
As last week’s Taipei Times feature on young KMT supporters indicates, the real blow to the party’s image is its conservative, out-of-touch elements — such as Wu — who pander to an authoritarian government that constantly threatens Taiwan and its democracy.
Not everyone favors Taiwanese independence, and many still believe in and identify with the Republic of China, but almost all young voters can agree on safeguarding the nation’s democracy and freedom. That is what Beijing is out to destroy, which is why Wu’s stance is so damaging to the KMT’s image.
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