Eri Chu’s China ambitions
When Taiwanese divers competed in last week’s 27th International Association for the Development of Apnea Individual Depth Freediving World Championship, the organizers removed Taiwan’s national flag from a livestream of the event after a complaint from China. Japan and nine other countries supported Taiwan by asking for their flags to also be removed.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman-elect Eric Chu (朱立倫) responded to the incident with a Facebook post in which he told Beijing that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should interact constructively and China should stop suppressing the “Republic of China” (ROC) national flag and infringing athletes’ rights.
He then switched to accusing President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) government of being incapable of maintaining equal and dignified dealings with China, or upholding Taiwanese citizens’ rights in China or elsewhere. Chu asked what Tsai had done to uphold the nation’s dignity and status.
After Chu was elected, neither Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) congratulatory letter nor Chu’s reply to it so much as mentioned “one China, with each side having its own interpretation,” or the ROC. This shows that Chu is not even a minion to Xi. As well as being unacceptable to consensus opinion in the KMT, his attitude is even more out of line with mainstream Taiwanese public opinion.
China’s warplanes harass Taiwan every day, disturbing the peace and showing no concern for Taiwanese public sentiment or the criticisms voiced by other countries. Chu does not dare to condemn China’s actions from a Taiwanese standpoint. Instead, he vainly hopes that China will start acting more constructively. Chu has been bewitched by China. If he thinks he can lead the KMT back from the dead, that would be a miracle indeed.
Chi An-hsiu
Taipei
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