The KMT’s two faces
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) is on an 11-day trip to the US, meeting with representatives of the US governing party, academia, overseas KMT members and the opposition Republican Party.
On behalf of the KMT, Chu would like to convey to the US and the global community that the KMT loves Taiwan, that it would safeguard the Republic of China (ROC), hold steadfast to democracy and freedom and stand with other democratic countries in the world.
However, how much truth is there in Chu’s message?
At the end of last month, 14 media outlets, including the BBC and Bloomberg, published the so-called the Xinjiang Police Files — an astounding treasure trove of images, documents and speeches of detainees detailing efforts by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to wipe out all traces of identity and culture among the Uighur population in China’s far-western Xinjiang region — which revealed the extent of the genocide there.
Former KMT chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) started accusing Western countries led by the US of fabricating lies about so-called genocide and forced labor in Xinjiang to defame and undermine the stability and harmonious development in China.
Hung’s anti-democracy and anti-human rights speeches have been nothing but whitewashing the CCP’s atrocities and brutality.
Chu has not sought to rebuke or criticize Hung’s statements, and has remained silent on the matter. This is enough to show that the KMT’s claim of “standing with other democratic countries in the world” is nothing but a falsehood.
As China kept sending warplanes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, the US and the global community have condemned Beijing’s actions, calling them “provocative” and “destabilizing,” and warning that they “undermine regional peace and stability.”
However, KMT Legislator-at-large Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), a retired lieutenant general, regarded Chinese incursions not as a sign of aggression, saying that the Chinese warplanes share the equal right to “patrol” the Taiwan Strait.
If the KMT could so easily relinquish Taiwan’s air defense identification zone to China, it would be a stretch to believe that “the KMT loves Taiwan” when its foreign policy is as different as chalk and cheese from that of the US.
Further, KMT legislators have been disparaging US officials and US Congress members for coming to Taiwan to sell arms and do business, while Chu described US pork with ractopamine residue as “pork for cuckoos” during the four referendums last year.
It is certain that Chu will have a fun time accounting for this non-US-friendly behavior to the US.
Perhaps Chu is the “black sheep” in the party for being the only pro-US member, or maybe the KMT is adopting a two-faced attitude: demonstrating a pro-US attitude while in the US, but going back to its usual way of attacking the US when at home.
Tsai Min-hsiung
Taipei
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