タグ: “Taiwan KMT”

China – Taiwan Relations: Iceberg Ahead!

201504100013t0001.jpg                                                       (Photo: Focus Taiwan News)

                                                        by David Parmer

It is 2015 and a woman is running for president. Not in the US, but in Taiwan.The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Chair, Tsai Ing-wen has declared herself a candidate for president in the coming 2016 elections. This will be her second run for president. She also ran in 2012, but was defeated by Taiwan’s current president, Ma Ying-jeou.

 Voters gave the DPP a resounding victory in local elections in autumn 2014, and Taiwan’s President Ma stepped down as KMT party president to take responsibility for the poor showing.

 It looks like the voters will again hand the KMT a defeat, this time in the 2016 general election for President, Vice-President and Legislative Yuan. Current KMT president and mayor of New Taipei City, Eric Chu, has said that he is not going to run in 2016. If the chances of winning are as slim as they look, maybe Mr. Chu does not want to damage his political reputation by being beaten in a lopsided presidential election. 

 If Tsai Ing-wen does become president, and the DPP gets the landslide victory that many anticipate, then cross strait relations with the People’s Republic will take a new direction. 

 The Wall Street Journal reported ( April 15, 2015) that Tsai has already said relations with the PRC will remain unchanged and the status quo will be respected.

 But. The DPP has made its position quite clear. In 2007 it called for a separate identity for Taiwan. What’s more, the party considers Taiwan independence a fact, and rejects the one-China principle. On its website, the DPP describes itself as favoring a “balanced international perspective” “Taiwan-centric identity” and “strong progressive values.”

 Tsai’s statement favoring the status quo regarding cross strait relations may not satisfy anyone. The DPP is the DPP and Taiwan uniting with the mainland does not seem to be part of their DNA.

Could this issue be the one chance that the KMT has to narrow the odds in the 2016 election, or even win the election? Many have benefited from the warmer relations between the PRC and Taiwan during the Ma years, in a sense they have a real vested interest in their own “status quo”, that is, improved economic and social relations with the mainland.

And. Then there is the coalition of students and independent  groups that made up the Sunflower Movement of 2014 that occupied the Legislative Yuan. Their complaint was with the KMT and its cross strait trade policy, but even if the DPP wins in 2016, will the younger generation be satisfied with “business as usual” or “business as usual 1.1 DPP style”?

 Finally. In the world of politics, where pragmatism often trumps principles, perhaps an “accommodation” could be reached between the PRC and DPP  favoring the status quo and business as usual.

Except. That there is a metaphorical iceberg in the Taiwan Strait, and that is Taiwan Independence. Sooner or later action must be taken to deal with the issue. And each party has a radically different solution to the problem.

 

 

Person of Interest: Ma Ying-jeou, President of Taiwan

 “Truth is paramount and triumphs over falsity. Guilelessness is paramount and triumphs over craftiness.”                                                               

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        (Photo: Office of the President, Republic of China, Taiwan)

                                      by David Parmer

On July 20, 2013, Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou was re-elected as president of Taiwan’s ruling KMT (GuoMinDang) party. Ma ran un-opposed, but the heavy voter turnout was taken by some as a sign of approval for the job he is doing in his second term as president. Elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2012, Ma has had a steady and ever-advancing rise to power.

       Some highlights:

  • Born in Hong Kong July 13, 1950
  • National Taiwan University 1972, B.A. Law
  • New York University 1976, L.L.M. (Masters in Law)
  • Harvard University 1981 S.J.D. (Doctor of Law)
  • Office of the President of Taiwan 1981
  • Minister of Justice 1993
  • Mayor of Taipei 1998
  • Chairman of KMT Party 2005
  •  President of Taiwan 2008
  •  President of Taiwan 2012 (Second Term)

President Ma is known, and will probably be remembered for his pragmatic handling of relations with the Beijing government.  While standing his ground on areas where there are basic differences, he has taken a long-term and pragmatic approach toward relations with the mainland.

Since 2003 the mainland has been Taiwan’s chief trading partner. Bloomberg reported that Chinese tourists spent an estimated $9.8 billion from 2009 to the present. Direct flights which eliminated the necessity of circuitous routes required in the past have certainly positively impacted cross-strait relations and trade.

In a Foreign Press Center briefing on July 22, 2013 in Washington, U.S Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Daniel Russel observed:

“…we respect and admire the progress that has been made in cross-straight relations under President Ma Ying-jeou’s tenure. We think that the dialog that he has fostered provides benefits to people on both sides of the strait as well as to the region and others in terms of promoting stability and promoting prosperity.”

 When President Ma was re-elected to the KMT presidency last week, he was congratulated by Xi Jin Ping in his capacity as head of the Communist Party of China and not as her President. And this underlies the problem, for a meeting to take place between the two leaders, President Ma would have to be recognized as a head of state, and officially Beijing sees Taiwan not as a state, but as a breakaway province. Diplomats have artfully resolved more thorny issues than this with subtle artifice and carefully-worded statements, so maybe before his term is over in 2016, Ma Ying-jeou might meet the president of the PRC in Beijing.

Whatever the outcome, he will surely be remembered as the KMT leader who did the most in 60 years to bring Chinese on both sides of the strait closer together.