Taipei Times: Ma Ying-jeou (
Wu: [Ma's] track record in both his behavior and remarks shows that he is indeed pro-China, anti-America and anti-Japan. Militarily, Taiwan's biggest threat is from China. It is necessary and legitimate for Taiwan to increase its self-defense capabilities. When the US President George W. Bush approved an arms sale deal to Taiwan in 2001 -- which included weapons that will increase Taiwan's anti-missile and anti-submarine capabilities -- we saw the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) block the government's arms procurement budget a total of 45 times in the legislative procedural committee, thus preventing the bill from going to the legislative floor for debate and discussion. This track record shows that the KMT seems to strongly oppose Taiwan increasing its self-defense capabilities. Ma said in a speech at the London School of Economics (LSE) last month that increasing Taiwan's defense capabilities would be a form of arms race with China, so it is obvious that Ma is against the arms procurement bill.
Another part of Ma's track record is his remarks on several occasions about Taiwan's relations with China. In December last year, Ma first spoke of the goal of "ultimate unification" with China during an interview with Newsweek magazine. Later, in an interview with the BBC's Chinese-language service, Ma said that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should jointly decide whether or not to unify when the time is ripe. Please note here that he only referred to unification as an option. He then continued to say that if the KMT comes to power again, it will not rule out the possibility of unification with China. And in his speech at LSE, he said he will endeavor to create conditions conducive to unification and for both Taiwan and China to agree to the "one China" principle.
Judging by these comments, I think Ma is a 100 percent advocate of unification, which to a large extent has also contributed to his anti-Japan and anti-America stance. Ma's reaction to the Diaoyutai territorial dispute with Japan has been very emotional, with his hard-line approach against the Japanese government. In addition, his stance towards the US may not be one that is well matched to US interests, as could be seen from the KMT's non-supportive attitude to the US in 2001. The [DPP] government at that time expressed its support for the US' anti-terrorism campaign. But if we look at the major statements by KMT leaders at the time, we find that the KMT was opposing the US war on terror.
TT: The public doesn't seem to be clear about the fact that Taiwan is not part of the People's Republic of China. Under the soft approach of China's "united front" tactics, it seems that quite a large portion of Taiwanese are not treating the Chinese threat as a serious matter. How do you see the development of such trends?
Wu: Yes, we've began to notice such developments recently. Not only is the cross-strait economic balance tilting towards China, the political balance is starting to lean toward China as well. And while Taiwan is faced with an unprecedented difficult situation following China's passage of the "Anti-Secession" Law in March last year and its gearing up "united front" tactics against Taiwan, we saw the KMT acting closely in line with China's policy. Just look at the KMT's track record last year. We've clearly seen the party, whether under (former chairman) Lien Chan (
For example, the KMT said the reason it blocked the arms procurement bill in the legislature is because they regard China's military deployment as not being targeted at all the Taiwanese, but just at a few pro-independence elements on the island. Such reasoning is exactly the same as China's. Even when China passed the Anti-Secession Law last year, which triggered strong condemnation around the world, the KMT's then chairman Lien Chan still insisted on visiting China. These moves have greatly hurt Taiwan.
TT: What is the DPP's strategy to cope with the cross-strait stalemate, given that China will not give up its "one China" principle as a precondition to enter into dialogue with Taipei?
Wu: There have been a few initiatives taking place across the Strait, such as the government's plan to allow Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan. We're now waiting for China to designate an agent in Taiwan to be the proxy for negotiating details on behalf of the Taiwanese authorities. But so far there's been no concrete results or response from China. The DPP government's policy has been that Taiwan is already an independent country, with the Republic of China as its national name. Most countries in the world accept Taiwan's de facto independence ... Taiwan independence is already a fact, and we have made it clear that we won't push for de jure independence. And we won't rule out any possibilities of relations with China in the future, as long as democratic principles are upheld. In the remaining two years or so, we'll continue to work on improving cross-strait relations, boosting domestic public opinion and international policy campaigns. And if China keeps rejecting our initiatives and goodwill, then we'll let it be.
TT: What do you think of the change of Ma's policy tone from pushing for "ultimate unification" to mentioning independence as a choice for Taiwan?
Wu: I think such flip-flops obviously reveal that Ma on the one hand wants to explain the KMT's position, but on the other hand, he also wanted to speak for the Taiwanese people. I think what he said [about the independence option] doesn't represent the KMT platform.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS