The government’s strongly worded dismissal of a Chinese official’s remark that Taiwan’s future should be decided by “all Chinese” was a bid to shore up public support for President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) China policy, but could be a strain on bilateral ties, a cross-strait relations expert said yesterday.
In the statement, the Ma administration said that the nation’s future is in the hands of its 23 million residents, rejecting the claim by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesperson Fan Liqing (范麗青) on Wednesday that Taiwan’s future “must be decided by all Chinese people, including [our] Taiwanese compatriots.”
Aside from seeking to promote Ma’s China stance, the statement also represents a bottleneck in the development of cross-strait ties, said Tung Chen-yuan (童振源), director of National Chengchi University’s Graduate Institute of Development Studies.
Even though Fan’s comment was a reiteration of Beijing’s well-known position, it sparked angry responses from the public, analysts and politicians across party lines, with some netizens warning China to keep its hands off Taiwan.
The Mainland Affairs Council and the Presidential Office issued statements on behalf of the Ma administration saying that the future of the nation and its relationship with China should be decided by its citizens.
Commenting on the strong reaction, Tung said the idea that the nation’s future should be left to Taiwanese is a consensus between the governing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which favors closer ties with China, and the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
“It’s taken for granted that the DPP would have responded the way it did,” he said, adding that the KMT administration had no choice but to follow suit given the high level of public distrust in the government.
“Had the administration not rebuked Fan’s comments, its lack of response would have been construed as acquiescence, which would have further eroded support for the Ma administration’s cross-strait policy,” said Tung, who served as deputy chief of the council in the DPP administration.
With political and sovereignty issues left unresolved, the closer economic and social integration Taiwan and China have engage in since Ma took office in 2008 has led to greater unease among the public about the cross-strait relationship, he said.
That public opinion has run counter to Beijing’s Taiwan policy over the past six years means that the development of cross-strait relations has reached a bottleneck, Tung said.
The relationship could regress if Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is forced to adjust the “peaceful development” framework established by his predecessor, former Chinese president Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), Tung said.
Only 27 percent of people surveyed see Taiwan and China as “one China,” while 61 percent disagree, a poll released last month by Taiwan Indicators Survey Research showed. The figures compare with 39 percent in favor and 48 percent against in April last year.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS