When President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) appointed the 43-year-old Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) to head the Mainland Affairs Council, there wasan uproar. It was not a matter of his age, but of his experience, or lack thereof. Wang is a rookie, with no experience in foreign relations and no experience in dealing with China. One could even make the case that he lacks any practical political experience whatsoever. And yet now he has been propelled, in a single bound, into a key position in China relations. It’s difficult to know where to start in describing such a decision.
Is it possible there were no other candidates? Of course there were. And Wang was just one of three surprise appointments, the others being King Pu-tsung (金溥聰), named as Taiwan’s representative to the US, and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General Lin Join-sane (林中森), who is to take over at the Straits Exchange Foundation.
They are, to a man, amateurs in the position they are being offered, and yet these positions put them right in the thick of the all-important foreign relations with the US and China. Even pan-blue camp legislators are at a loss for words. This kind of political inbreeding is the sort of thing that only someone like Ma is capable of.
But what, exactly, is Ma up to? In terms of political relationships, it is not really all that complicated. People speak of Ma and King belonging to an exclusive club, and there certainly is something in that. This spate of nominations has less to do with Ma than it has to do with King; it was King who was at the heart of it all, allocating power where he wants it. To put it bluntly, King orchestrated these promotions, making sure that he was the central player within it.
Wang is but a foot soldier, but he is under King, not Ma. King is calling the shots here. King has said that Wang has the same political thinking on cross-strait affairs as Ma, but it is more accurate to say that Wang and King have the same ideas. This is the only way to explain how Wang, despite his lack of credentials for the job, has been chosen.
Turning to Lin, he has always been a bit of a yes man. While he was originally one of Vice President Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) men, and by all accounts he has been operating at high levels for some time, the main thing is that he is not associated with other senior KMT members involved in cross-strait relations, such as former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) and former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), so King can use him with no concerns over where his loyalties may lie.
It is doubtful whether former foundation vice chairman Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) will be overjoyed at Lin’s appointment. In his resignation letter, foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) strongly recommended Kao as his successor, citing Kao’s experience, ability and judgement, saying that he was not only qualified to take over at the foundation, but would also be a good candidate for next council chairman.
Consequently, these appointments would have left Kao not only feeling aggrieved, but also rather humiliated.
Why did Ma have to go for Lin? Why is it that he would rather see Kao humiliated? The media have pointed out that it is because he is relatively new to the game. But hold on — isn’t that generally considered to be a shortcoming in a politician? Since when did that become a strength? Surely not because King will find it easier to control him? Or maybe it is that. And whoever controls King controls what all of the new appointees do in their roles.
No wonder the print and online media are all talking about all this as an example of political inbreeding. But is the public willing to accept this kind of nepotism in the government?
Chin Heng-wei is a political commentator.
Translated by Paul Cooper
US aerospace company Boeing Co has in recent years been involved in numerous safety incidents, including crashes of its 737 Max airliners, which have caused widespread concern about the company’s safety record. It has recently come to light that titanium jet engine parts used by Boeing and its European competitor Airbus SE were sold with falsified documentation. The source of the titanium used in these parts has been traced back to an unknown Chinese company. It is clear that China is trying to sneak questionable titanium materials into the supply chain and use any ensuing problems as an opportunity to
It’s not every month that the US Department of State sends two deputy assistant secretary-level officials to Taiwan, together. Its rarer still that such senior State Department policy officers, once on the ground in Taipei, make a point of huddling with fellow diplomats from “like-minded” NATO, ANZUS and Japanese governments to coordinate their multilateral Taiwan policies. The State Department issued a press release on June 22 admitting that the two American “representatives” had “hosted consultations in Taipei” with their counterparts from the “Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” The consultations were blandly dubbed the “US-Taiwan Working Group on International Organizations.” The State
The Chinese Supreme People’s Court and other government agencies released new legal guidelines criminalizing “Taiwan independence diehard separatists.” While mostly symbolic — the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never had jurisdiction over Taiwan — Tamkang University Graduate Institute of China Studies associate professor Chang Wu-ueh (張五岳), an expert on cross-strait relations, said: “They aim to explain domestically how they are countering ‘Taiwan independence,’ they aim to declare internationally their claimed jurisdiction over Taiwan and they aim to deter Taiwanese.” Analysts do not know for sure why Beijing is propagating these guidelines now. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), deciphering the
Delegation-level visits between the two countries have become an integral part of transformed relations between India and the US. Therefore, the visit by a bipartisan group of seven US lawmakers, led by US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul to India from June 16 to Thursday last week would have largely gone unnoticed in India and abroad. However, the US delegation’s four-day visit to India assumed huge importance this time, because of the meeting between the US lawmakers and the Dalai Lama. This in turn brings us to the focal question: How and to what extent