Despite an approaching typhoon, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) on Tuesday departed for the annual Shanghai-Taipei forum in China. The twin-city forum was launched in 2010 by then-Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) during the administration of then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). It was continued under his successor, Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), now chairman of the Taiwan People’s Party.
Chiang tried to allay Taipei residents’ concerns about potential heavy rainfall and high winds that the typhoon could bring by saying that he had left Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Shu-chuan (李四川) in charge during his absence — even though people voted for him, not Lee, to be Taipei mayor. Chiang’s decision to attend the forum over staying to oversee disaster response and management shows how he prioritizes relations with China, regardless of potential damage or loss of life back home.
In defending his decision, Chiang said: “Taipei is the most developed area in Taiwan and, as Taipei mayor, I have a responsibility to grasp any opportunity to strive for the prosperous development of the city and the nation.”
The forum has served as a conduit to maintain dialogue between the cities of Taipei and Shanghai, despite changes in party politics or cross-strait relations, he added.
Cross-strait relations are fraught, which is not what Taiwanese want to see, and while there is friction between the two sides about exports of agricultural and fishery products, it needs to be solved through talks, he said.
“Cross-strait relations are complicated and cannot be simplified to a few sentences, so there must be a mechanism for dialogue,” he said, adding that action is needed to resolve friction.
Dialogue is indeed the most direct form of communication, and individuals and groups rely on dialogue to maintain relations.
However, the prerequisite for dialogue is mutual respect, to recognize the other as an autonomous individual or organization. Without this recognition, dialogue is conducted in vain, and can lead to belittling oneself or distrust.
If dialogue could bring stability, then people would not have conflicts and nations would not go to war with one another. To add insult to injury, Taiwan’s current enemy is none other than the Chinese Communist Party, a power-hungry, autocratic regime that pays little heed to human lives and harbors the ambition to annex Taiwan by force. To realize its agenda, it has put numerous resources toward waging cognitive warfare, creating rifts in Taiwanese society, and undermining public morale and national identity — in hopes that Taiwan will capitulate without Beijing firing a single bullet.
Chiang has no right to see himself as an ambassador of peace and stability. Peace is not achieved through dialogue, but by the military force and power that a nation possesses.
Furthermore, is Chiang “maintaining dialogue” on behalf of the entire Taiwanese population or as the Taipei mayor — an “independent city” without any administrative affiliations with other cities?
It is unlikely that Chiang would dare protest China’s saber rattling and cognitive warfare against Taiwan while in Shanghai, or even have the guts to introduce himself as the Taipei mayor of the Republic of China.
At most, Chiang is likely to attend the forum in high spirits while ending up as another chess piece in China’s “united front” campaign. The so-called twin-city forum only gives the global community cause to question Taiwan’s resolve and determination with regards to countering China, and is another opportunity for Beijing to repeat its stance that “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China.” No good can come out of the forum.
Chen Chi-nung is a political commentator.
Translated by Rita Wang
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