It is time for Taiwan to “reconcile with China,” former minister of culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) said in a New York Times op-ed this week, criticizing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and President William Lai (賴清德) for antagonizing China and stirring fear among Taiwan’s public.
Titled “The Clock is Ticking for Taiwan” and published on Tuesday, Lung said in her article that with US President Donald Trump “casting aside democratic values and America’s friends, Taiwan must begin an immediate, serious national conversation about how to secure peace with China.”
Lai’s “provocative labeling of China as an enemy ... [is] threatening peace and the progress Taiwan has made in building an open, democratic society,” she said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Lung said that relations with China were the best under former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), when “reconciliation seemed possible.”
Lung served as Taiwan's first minister of culture from 2012-2014 under the KMT and is a prominent writer and cultural critic.
Since the DPP won the presidency in 2016, relations with China have “reverted to confrontation and fear,” she said.
“Fear breeds hatred and distrust,” she said, “to the point that even suggesting peace with China is dismissed in Taiwan’s political discourse as naïve, unpatriotic or — worse — as surrender and betrayal.”
Chinese-state media the Global Times published an article in response yesterday, echoing Lung’s criticism of Lai and the DPP.
The article said that while Lung misunderstood the nature of cross-strait relations, her criticism of Lai and the Taiwan independence movement resonate with the growing dissatisfaction in Taiwan.
Commenting on the articles, Taiwan’s representative to Germany Shieh Jhy-wei (謝志偉) said that Lung’s focus was not on reconciliation with China but rather blaming Lai for the current tensions in the Taiwan strait, which spreads false information to the international community.
“The provocations and disturbances come from China, not Taiwan,” Shieh said, claiming that Lung’s “anti-Taiwan stance has become so extreme.”
Lee Jung-shian (李忠憲), a professor at National Cheng Kung University, said “pandering to China is not peace, it is the illusion of kneeling down to survive.”
“Once you choose to be a slave, don't foolishly think you are qualified for peace,” Lee said.
Democracy is not the result of peace, but an extension of free will, he said, adding that only by living with dignity does peace have meaning.
Otherwise, it is a kind of “enslaved silence,” he said, a humble plea of “I will not resist, so please do not hit me.”
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