The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) annual forums with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have obviously reached an impasse, prompting former KMT secretary-general Lee Shu-chuan (李四川) — in a report on party reform after holding 21 forums with the party’s grassroots supporters and local cadres nationwide over the past month — to propose the abolition of the exchanges.
Initiated by then-KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and then-Chinese president Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) during Lien’s 2005 “ice-breaking” visit to Beijing, the forum has been held since 2006, with the KMT touting it as a party-to-party communication platform that assists the development of cross-strait ties. At the end of each forum, consensuses were reached on topics relating to agricultural affairs, trade and cultural and educational exchanges, “providing a reference to formulating policies for both governments.”
However, it became apparent that the real purpose of the forums — billed as cultural and economic in nature — was to promote China’s goal of unification when then-KMT chairman and head of the KMT delegation to last year’s forum Eric Chu (朱立倫) said that both sides of the Taiwan Strait “belong to one China.”
It is clear that the forum operates in an opaque manner and works against the democratic process. Not only was a KMT official who was not part of the national government discussing matters of fundamental national importance with China without the mandate of the Taiwanese public, but Taiwan’s democracy has been further eroded by the KMT and China attempting to make decisions on cross-strait relations and developments via a party-to-party mechanism that excludes the Taiwanese electorate.
Over the past 10 years the forum has demonstrated to Taiwanese that it is not simply a meeting between two political parties but an opportunity for high-ranking KMT officials to fawn over Beijing officials who are attempting to determine Taiwan’s cross-strait policies and dictate cross-strait developments.
It often follows a similar pattern: Issues brought up during the KMT-CCP forum and shortly after prompt Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) to draw up and sign agreements.
In other words, the forum has seemingly become a sharp point that China uses to prod President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
While Ma has said that everything decided at the forums must be approved by the government and agreed to by the SEF and ARATS, the then-KMT-dominated legislature often appeared to blindly endorse any agreements by the two agencies.
In short, the government’s authority seems to have been usurped, with the forums setting the agenda for cross-strait development.
The Ma administration’s submissive attitude toward China has caused public discontent, and the electorate made their displeasure felt in January’s elections by handing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) a landslide victory.
After the KMT became a “true opposition” party — by losing the presidency and a majority in the legislature — the forum is likely to no longer play the role of setting the cross-strait agenda.
Now that the KMT’s grassroots and local cadres have recognized the public’s anger and called for the abolition of these opaque forums, the top echelon of the KMT must have the wisdom to acquiesce.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS