Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has failed the public with his assertion that President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) refusal to acknowledge the so-called “1992 consensus” is propelling the nation to the brink of war, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday.
Su made the remarks during an interview while inspecting the Cianjhen Fishing Port in Kaohsiung.
In addition to saying at a forum in Taipei that Tsai’s rejection of the “consensus” would bring war to the nation, Ma also said that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) would swiftly win a hypothetical conflict before the US could send reinforcements, adding that “the first battle would quickly become the last.”
Su said that Ma, as the nation’s former top official, did not utter a word of reprimand toward China at a time when the PLA is flying warplanes and conducting live-fire drills near the nation.
On the contrary, he sowed panic by saying that “the first battle will be the last, and the nation is unsafe,” he said.
Ma “has failed to live up to the goodwill and generosity that Taiwanese have shown him,” Su said.
Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said that Su deliberately took Ma’s words out of context.
Ma’s “first war being the last” remark was taken from an analysis published by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, which is a Ministry of National Defense think tank established during Tsai’s first term, he said, asking whether the Democratic Progressive Party knew about the analysis.
Ma made it abundantly clear at the forum that in addition to “not courting war and not being afraid to go to war,” the Tsai administration should vigorously prevent war, Hsiao said.
The piece of advice was given out of concern for people’s safety, but has been twisted by Tsai into “bowing and kneeling” to China, he said.
“Either Su’s aides prepared misleading information for him, or Su is deceiving the public, after he has deceived the gods,” Hsiao said.
He was referring to a vow Su, a former Taipei County commissioner, made in 2010 that he would not run for New Taipei City given that he had served two terms as county commissioner.
The “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
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