Thu, Jan 14, 2016 page1

• KMT warns against ‘scorched-earth’ diplomacy

  • By Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter
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  The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration would lead to a breakdown of the nation’s diplomatic ties if it reverted to the diplomatic approach followed by the last DPP administration, citing a US forum in which four former US defense secretaries urged Taiwan not to reverse progress made on the cross-strait relationship.

  KMT presidential campaign manager and former minister of foreign affairs Jason Hu (胡志強) said that in terms of scope, the forum, organized by the National Committee on United States-China Relations, was rarely seen.

  “The [three] main points of the forum, in short, were: first, the size of the arms sales to Taiwan was limited, so there is no need for Beijing to worry; second, if the cross-strait relationship goes sour, it would be ‘mutually assured economic destruction;’ third, that cross-strait development has been on the right track in the past eight years, though there is still room for improvement,” Hu said.

  

  Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu yesterday talks to reporters in Taoyuan, criticizing Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen for what he said are her vague policy proposals.

  Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times

  “If we told them at the forum that a major political party in Taiwan, according to what it had stated only days ago, does not rule out returning to scorched-earth diplomacy, that is, letting our diplomats know ‘who and what to fight for’ instead of following the current approach [of diplomatic truce], these defense secretaries would definitely not believe it,” Hu said.

  Hu was referring to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) criticism of Ma’s “diplomatic truce” policy.

  Tsai once said that the government’s diplomatic truce “has left many diplomats not knowing what they are fighting for and can only wait for someone to throw them a bone.”

  

  Four former US defense secretaries propose their views on the arms sales to Taiwan and some other issues at a leaders’ forum in Washington on Tuesday.

  Photo: CNA

  A nation’s leader has to know that a nation’s policies are not separate from each other, such as that politics has nothing to do with the military, or that the military is unrelated to diplomacy, or that diplomacy has nothing to do with economy and trade, Hu said.

  “Nor does it follow a linear model, in which military policies can wait until economic polices are done, and economic ones can wait until political affairs are settled,” Hu said.

  “I think it is more tree-like. If the cross-strait relationship is good, it grows a lot of fruit. Some might be unripe, as a tree would always have some bad ones, but if [the cross-strait relationship] works well, the tree would have a good harvest overall,” Hu said, adding that diplomacy is an area where the achievements made in past years should be carefully maintained.

  Former minister of foreign affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) said he was “disheartened” when he heard that the diplomats were criticized as not knowing what they are fighting for, “for the nation’s diplomats have been assiduously working for the nation’s welfare.”

  “‘Diplomatic truce’ has been called diplomatic coma, but it is not true. It is rather a tacit agreement with China to stop fighting over diplomatic allies. Only one ally, the Gambia, was lost during the Ma administration, and China was not the factor behind it,” he said.

  “There are people saying it is okay for Taiwan to have zero diplomatic allies, but it should be emphasized that while we might consider ourselves a country, according to the international law you need recognition from other countries to be a country,” Yang added.

  Citing an academic article, one reporter asked whether the KMT caucus’ warning of a possible “avalanche of cases of severances of diplomatic relations” amounts to intimidation and echoing Beijing’s stance.

  Hu denied that it did and said it is the KMT’s right and every citizen’s right to express their concerns over Tsai’s diplomacy.

  “It is extremely unfair to compare expression of a different view to intimidation,” Hu said.

  Responding at a separate setting, DPP News and Information Department director Alex Huang (黃重諺) said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had already denied the KMT’s allegations.

  “Regrettably, the KMT continues to play the threat card three days before the election, using diplomatic affairs as a tool of election manipulation,” Huang said. “The KMT is really not making any progress.”

  In addition, responding to remarks made by former US defense secretaries at the forum, DPP spokesperson Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) said that maintaining cross-strait stability is a responsibility shared by both sides.

  “Tsai will strive to maintain the ‘status quo’ to keep the Taiwan Strait peaceful,” he said.
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