From June 16 to Monday last week, China held its 15th Straits Forum in Xiamen Province. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) billed it as the largest convention for cross-strait exchanges in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) issued a congratulatory letter, while Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧), China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) and officials across China’s Fujian Province gathered for the forum.
Although there were few representatives from Taiwan, Beijing endeavored to put together 51 “united front” activities, including holding receptions and luring participants in the name of tourism and religion, and mobilizing 5,000 Taiwanese living in China. Despite all these efforts, the event was uninspiring and dull. Not all that glitters is gold.
Unsurprisingly, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) sent a delegation of high-level officials. KMT Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) led the delegation on behalf of party Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫). The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) sent its Taiwanese Businesspeople Affairs Committee chairman, Chang Kai-chun (張凱鈞). Before they left for Xiamen, Hsia and Chang repeatedly emphasized that the KMT and the TPP were attending the event to promote peace and communication. KMT Youth Work Committee director Liao Yi-hsiu (廖怡琇) even said that participation in the Straits Forum should not be politicized.
However, in his congratulatory message to the forum, Xi encouraged “compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to promote the unification of the motherland.” Wang and Song also touted the importance of upholding the so-called “1992 consensus” and opposing Taiwanese independence. Under the banner of “cross-strait exchanges,” they even claimed that “Taiwan belongs to the entire Chinese people,” a political claim that most Taiwanese would find unacceptable. It was the host of the Straits Forum — the CCP — that gave the forum its political tone.
If the KMT and the TPP could not even refuse to attend what was so obviously a “united front” event that denigrated Taiwanese sovereignty, how could they shamelessly ask the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) not to politicize their actions?
Top KMT and TPP officials have made every effort to cover up their activities that have debased Taiwan while pleasing the CCP with a beautiful package labeled “cross-strait dialogue.” They even sought to legitimize their actions by saying the US government encourages “cross-strait exchanges” and appropriating Vice President William Lai’s (賴清德) commitment to protecting Taiwan in a “peaceful way.”
There is no justification for the KMT’s and the TPP’s claims. The public knows that the CCP has shaken cross-strait stability with its repeated military incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. Chinese fleets continue to conduct dangerous operations in the Taiwan Strait, threatening Taiwanese.
Although the KMT and the TPP say they want peace, neither party has ever condemned the CCP’s military actions when they met with Chinese officials. The “dialogue” and “communication” proposed by the KMT and the TPP do not mean much. The only thing the two parties’ officials know is to respectfully listen while CCP officials give them a dressing down. If they could not even utter a word of rebuttal when faced with Chinese officials, the public should not count on them to speak for up for Taiwanese.
Clearly, the CCP’s devotion to and promotion of the Straits Forum was far from cost-effective. The purpose of this so-called “cross-strait exchange” was to carry out Beijing’s “united front” plan. The Mainland Affairs Council already knew what was going on and called it China’s propaganda campaign.
The forum also showed that China’s “united front” agencies have become increasingly desperate as their tactics have failed to fool Taiwanese, who are now cognizant of the CCP’s propaganda and can see through its sugar-coated lies.
Be it the KMT or the TPP, they can no longer play the same old tricks. Taiwanese know what they are doing. On the one hand, they try to win Beijing’s favor and sympathy, and on the other hand, they try to win votes in Taiwan.
The two parties have underestimated the character and intelligence of Taiwanese. As Taiwan’s opposition parties, they have demeaned themselves by giving up their dignity and integrity.
Jethro Wang is a former secretary at the Mainland Affairs Council.
Translated by Emma Liu
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