A lot has been made of Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu’s (陳菊) comments during her trip to China last week to promote this summer’s World Games after she used the words “President Ma [Ying-jeou, 馬英九]” and “central government” during a meeting with the mayor of Beijing.
Chen became the first high-profile Taiwanese official to make such comments on the record in China. Chen’s actions have received a lot of domestic media attention and earned her rare praise from politicians across the political spectrum.
Although her comments were censored by Chinese television, she succeeded in reminding people that it is possible to travel to China and meet senior Chinese officials while upholding Taiwan’s dignity.
Chen’s behavior is in stark contrast to that of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), who during a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) on Tuesday referred to the situation in Taiwan using the term daonei (島內), or “on the island.”
Wu could not find a suitable opportunity to mention “Taiwan,” let alone use words that hinted at Taiwan’s sovereign status. The excuse given by KMT officials afterwards was that Wu’s terminology was a product of his upbringing.
This just doesn’t wash.
But then again, Taiwanese should not expect less from Wu, who has often shown himself to be no champion of titles, regularly referring to the president as “Mr Ma.”
As well as highlighting the cowardice of top KMT officials such as Wu and former chairman Lien Chan (連戰), Chen’s trip was a reminder that, contrary to what the KMT would have us believe, it is possible to achieve positive results when dealing with China — and to do so with self-respect.
The blaze of propaganda surrounding Ma’s cross-strait “success” since the KMT returned to office has blurred the achievements during the eight years of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government from 2000 until last year. During that time, Taiwanese companies were allowed to invest billions of dollars in China, much more than had been allowed under previous KMT governments. But the government never felt it had to belittle Taiwan to achieve its goals.
It was the DPP that in 2001 initiated the “small three links” and later started cross-strait flights during holiday periods with a view to eventually upgrading them. It also completed negotiations on cross-strait charter flights.
The Chinese held off on implementing them for fear of giving the DPP government a propaganda coup. Instead, it waited to let the KMT earn all the glory after it regained power.
The DPP also made the first tentative steps toward opening the country to Chinese tourists, although it was skeptical about letting too many visit at a time, and with good reason.
The problem for the DPP was that it failed to properly publicize these achievements, allowing them to be drowned out by endless attacks from the opposition and the pro-unification media.
While relations between Taiwan and China were far from perfect during its tenure, the DPP at least demonstrated that it is not necessary to denigrate Taiwan to earn economic concessions from Beijing. If only so much could be said of the present government.
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