While the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) senior personnel were meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials in China on Tuesday for “economic interactions,” President William Lai (賴清德) in Taipei asserted that Taiwan should cooperate with like-minded democracies instead to advance Taiwan’s economic prosperity.
Following Taiwan and the US’ consensus to reduce reciprocal tariffs to 15 percent from 20 percent through the Taiwan-US Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue (EPPD), the countries this month signed a “Pax Silica” declaration to enhance cooperation on economic security, such as on artificial intelligence (AI) and critical minerals for global semiconductor supply chains.
“Taiwan is on the right economic path and is striding confidently onto the world stage. Taiwan has both the capability and the confidence to work with its democratic partners to lead the next generation of prosperity,” Lai said at a news conference lauding the achievements of the EPPD.
On the same day, a delegation led by KMT Vice Chairman Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) attended the KMT-CCP think tank exchange event in China, where they met with Song Tao (宋濤), director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, and Wang Huning (王滬寧), chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, aiming to set up a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文).
Although the two parties’ meeting was under the name of economic cooperation, Wang and Song stressed that cross-strait relations should be based on upholding the so-called “1992 consensus” and opposing Taiwan’s independence, with the former widely seen as an understanding between the two parties to recognize “one China” aiming to eliminate the Republic of China in Taiwan, and the latter an obvious denial of Taiwanese self-determination.
To hold a dialogue with China, a major trading partner to Taiwan, is necessary, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government has said, as they work to resume official cross-strait interactions, suspended by China unilaterally since the DPP took office in 2016. However, the interactions should be based on mutual respect, not at the price of Taiwan’s sovereignty and democratic freedom.
The Mainland Affairs Council has issued an alert that the KMT-CCP meetings could be packaged as a platform for civil exchanges, but might risk national security.
“Do we want to continue collaborating with the US, Japan, Europe and other allied nations to expand economics onto the global stage, or tie ourselves to China?” Lai asked.
Statistics show that the average annual economic growth rate during former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) and former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) terms, which focused on reaching global markets, reached 4.8 percent and 3.1 percent, superior to the 2.8 percent during former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) term, which focused on trading with China.
In the first year of Lai’s presidency, Taiwan’s economic growth rate grew to 8.6 percent, the highest in 15 years and much superior to China’s officially stated 5 percent. GDP per capita has grown from less than US$30,000 during Ma’s administration to more than US$39,477, surpassing even Japan and South Korea.
In spite of Cheng saying that “there is no need to pick a side between US and China,” the KMT has done just that, taking unprecedented actions to block the government’s general budgets, especially the eight-year total NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.5 billion) special defense budget, from proceeding through the legislative process.
This move has endangered Taiwan’s national security and hindered it from upholding its responsibility to safeguard the stability of the first island chain and the Asia-Pacific region. It aligns with reports saying that the CCP had instructed the KMT to obstruct Taiwan’s defense budgets as one of the preconditions for a Xi-Cheng meeting.
A survey by My-Formosa.com (美麗島電子報) indicated that, while the public approval rating for Lai has increased, more than 53 percent of Taiwanese “distrust” Cheng and her “disapproval” has surged by 20.3 percentage points in the three months since her inauguration as KMT chairwoman.
The KMT should look back at the history of the Chinese Civil War to remember how it was cheated by the CCP. The opposition party has again exposed itself to a trap that could cost it not only the trust of Taiwanese, but also its international image, as the US Senate Dan Sullivan has warned that, ” short changing Taiwan’s defense to Kowtow to the CCP is ‘playing with fire’.”
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