On Sunday, elite free solo climber Alex Honnold — famous worldwide for scaling sheer rock faces without ropes — climbed Taipei 101, once the world’s tallest building and still the most recognizable symbol of Taiwan’s modern identity. Widespread media coverage not only promoted Taiwan, but also saw the Republic of China (ROC) flag fluttering beside the building, breaking through China’s political constraints on Taiwan.
That visual impact did not happen by accident. Credit belongs to Taipei 101 chairwoman Janet Chia (賈永婕), who reportedly took the extra step of replacing surrounding flags with the ROC flag ahead of the climb.
Just two days before Honnold’s climb, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — Taiwan’s main opposition party — was busy blocking legislation critical to Taiwan’s national defense. For the eighth time, it obstructed a special defense budget and arms procurement from the US, while simultaneously pushing to revive the Cross-Strait Economic, Trade and Culture Forum, commonly known as the KMT-CCP (Chinese Communist Party) forum, and promoting a potential meeting between KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
That was not enough for Beijing. Chinese officials reportedly complained that the KMT’s efforts to delay arms purchases amounted only to “technical obstruction,” and demanded more. Specifically, they insisted that the KMT stop evading the question of “post-unification institutional arrangements” — and, crucially, stop allowing Taiwanese to believe that the ROC could continue to exist in case of unification. In Beijing’s view, “unification” means the complete absorption of Taiwan into the People’s Republic of China (PRC), with the ROC erased.
During elections, the KMT never fails to proclaim that it is “defending the ROC,” waving the ROC flag and warning voters that a victory by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would spell the end of the ROC. Yet, it is not the DPP that appears to be cooperating — wittingly or not — with Beijing’s insistence on eliminating the ROC. Against the backdrop of Chia’s efforts to let the world see Taiwan and its flag, the KMT’s posture looks not just contradictory, but painfully absurd.
From the CCP’s perspective, the logic is brutally simple: Any refusal to submit to rule under the PRC flag is “Taiwan independence.” It makes no difference whether one invokes the ROC, the Constitution or historical continuity. The CCP has reached the point of pressing the KMT to accept the destruction of the ROC and embrace “unification” under the PRC. Given Beijing’s track record, it is only a matter of time before figures such as Chia — who dared to let the ROC flag be seen — are labeled “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists.”
When that happens, no one should expect the KMT to speak up. This is a party that has already bent so far toward Beijing that it no longer dares to object. It has become less an opposition party than a scout for China’s “united front” tactics aimed at Taiwan.
John Yu is a civil servant in Taipei.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
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