Despite the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) early last month starting large military exercises around Taiwan, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) led a delegation to China.
As Hsia hurried to visit the enemy state, was he trying to achieve an urgent “mission” there? Certainly, this tour was not in the hands of the KMT, but made at the mercy of the CCP.
Based on the two parties’ styles and the key members involved, the affair was reminiscent of the 2015 meeting of then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Before the delegation departed for China on Aug. 10, the KMT did not submit an application for an “urgent” visit to the Mainland Affairs Council until Aug. 4.
SECRET MEETINGS
Similarly, plans for the Nov. 7, 2015, Ma-Xi meeting in Singapore were kept under wraps until the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) ran a report on Nov. 3, forcing the Ma administration to confirm the news.
Had it not been for the reports, the public would have been kept in the dark.
Why did the KMT behave like this before both trips?
Obviously, it knew it would be better to keep its plans quiet, so the government, rival parties and especially the public would not have time to react before the meetings. The Leninist-style behavior of the KMT is just like that of a gangster.
During Hsia’s visit, he first met with Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits President Zhang Zhijun (張志軍), who was China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) minister when the Ma-Xi meeting took place.
Before the Singapore meeting, Hsia, who at that time was the Mainland Affairs Council minister, met with Zhang in Guangzhou, China, in October 2015, when Zhang proposed that Ma and Xi meet, Hsia later said.
Although Hsia did not meet with TAO Minister Liu Jieyi (劉結一) last month, he did meet with TAO Vice Minister Chen Yuanfeng (陳元豐), another major figure at the office in 2015.
RESTORING POWER
When Hsia met with Chen and the Chinese team behind the Ma-Xi meeting, did they discuss the possibility of another private meeting between Ma and Xi?
Among the heavyweights of the KMT, Ma’s political ideology is close to that of Xi’s “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” There seems to be an urgent need for Xi to meet with Ma to restore his prestige and some of his lost power in China.
The matter might be related to a deleted report about Xi and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) — titled “Source: Li going up, Xi not going down already a done deal” — allegedly written and released mistakenly by a “translator” at the Chinese-language Economic Daily News on Aug. 22.
By indicating that Xi would definitely not step down, the report was trying to save face for him, to prevent the Chinese president from doing something crazy.
MISDIRECTED FOCUS
Originally, the report was intended to reveal big news from the annual Beidaihe conference in Beijing last month.
Since the report also hinted that former KMT chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) might collude with Xi should a cross-strait war break out, many Taiwanese have focused on Hung, while ignoring the huge political changes taking place in China.
Paul Lin is a political commentator.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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