Ever since the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lost the presidency, it has been toiling and moiling to return to power. It is a shame that it has not tried to garner public support by forming a shadow Cabinet, or proposing a grand vision that benefits the nation as a whole.
Instead, it has resorted to smear campaigns, engaging in games of coarse insults, trash-talk and mudslinging against the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
The trick did work once or twice, such as when KMT member Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) won the Kaohsiung mayoral election in 2018; KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) orchestrated the recall of Taiwan Statebuilding Party legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟); and KMT Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) and Taipei City Councilor Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) benefited from mudslinging in last year’s local elections.
However, the use of negative campaigning is akin to practicing the “seven injuries fist” (七傷拳) in Jin Yong’s (金庸) novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber (倚天屠龍記), a skill that enables a fighter to inflict severe injuries on their opponent, but also harms themselves gravely in the process. The KMT had a taste of its own “fist” when Han lost the presidential election to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), and was then ignominiously ousted in a recall referendum in 2019. Chu has lost all social credit in the eyes of the public, and the party’s recent enlistment of its presidential nominee is the final nail in the coffin. Wang, Hsu and other “political workers” that are believers of negative campaigns are also using up their social credit. In keeping with this trend, KMT could once again “win the battle yet lose the war,” just like when it lost the Civil War to the Chinese Communist Party.
There were two great swordsmen in the history of Japan: Miyamoto Musashi and his protege Yagyu Matajuro. Miyamoto once told Yagyu, who was always keen to prove himself: Your eyes are so focused on first-rate swordsmen that you forget to pay attention to yourself. To become the best swordsman, you must watch yourself.
Desperate to return to power, the KMT has forgotten an important philosophy taught in the Confucian classic Great Learning (大學) about “self-cultivation, family management, state governance and bringing peace to all under heaven.” Keen to befriend China, it has directed all its fire internally with its negative campaigns.
This mindset is akin to practicing the “seven injuries fist” in which practitioners fail to train themselves properly. With all its attention focused on criticizing the DPP and nothing else, it is safe to assume that only when pigs fly would it return to power.
Yu Kung is a Taiwanese entrepreneur working in China.
Translated by Rita Wang
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