Thu, Jun 19, 2003 page3

• Pundits ponder the impact of national identity

  THE CHINA ISSUE A PFP lawmaker's participation on Beijing's behalf at the World Health Organization's SARS conference has raised the loyalty question again

  • By Sandy Huang / STAFF REPORTER
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  It may still be too early to predict what the political impact on the PFP-KMT presidential ticket, if any, will be of PFP Legislator Kao Ming-chien's (高明見) invitation to the World Health Organization's (WHO) Global Conference on SARS.

  Some political analysts, however, said that the hoopla would at least ensure that national identity will be the one major issue between the pan-green and pan-blue camps in the lead up to next March's presidential race.

  Kao created a stir when he was allegedly recommended by Beijing to be invited to the conference. The PFP favors the eventual unification of Taiwan and China.

  Saying that all issues concerning China are always sensitive in Taiwan, Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒), a political observer and editor-in-chief of Contemporary Monthly magazine, said that the hullabaloo over Kao's WHO invitation -- plus the rhetoric of PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) and KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) since they announced their joint ticket -- highlights the direction the pan-blue camp wishes to take in terms of Taiwan's national identity, should it win the election next March.

  "Much of their actions and rhetoric suggests that they are staunch followers of China," Chin said, referring to Soong's pledge last month that a pan-blue government would bring Taiwan into the WHO within two years if the Lien-Soong ticket won next year and Lien saying he would immediately visit China if he won.

  Chin questioned whether Kao's conduct in Kuala Lumpur was sort of like an advance party so Soong could show his docility to China. He said there are questions about whether Soong's "one China" framework refers to the PRC or the Republic of China (ROC). All of this, Chin said, raises the issues that voters must consider on election day next March.

  "Connect all the dots and one realizes that the pan-blue camp is taking a total different stance in interpreting Taiwan's national identity from that of the pan-green camp," he said.

  "The pan-blue leaders like to claim that Taiwan's mainstream is with them," Chin said. "Election day will determine which road Taiwan will take in terms of its national identity."

  Agreeing that national identity will be the key election issue, Ger Yeong-kuang (葛永光), a professor of political science at National Taiwan University, pointed out that it is difficult to ignore China's influence in Taiwan's politics.

  "Both the ruling and the opposition parties like to condemn any meddling or interference by China in Taiwan's domestic affairs," said Ger. "Yet one interesting thing we see here is that, more often than not, China becomes an issue either pan-green or pan-blue could bring up when talking talk about its campaign."

  Saying that if the PFP does not do some quick damage-control over the Kao controversy, "it will assure that the DPP will create similar cases such as Kao's in order to create an impression among voters that the pan-blue camp is tantamount to being China's stooge."

  PFP Legislator Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞), however, disagrees that the uproar over Kao would help make national identity the main campaign issue next year.

  "If [the controversy] had happened four years ago, it might have produced a political chain effect," Lee said. "But over the last three years or so, the public has grown sick of the continuous arguments between the pan-blue and the pan-green camps over national identity, given the dire state of the economy."
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