Since Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧) met with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) and 16 other KMT legislators on April 27, several incidents have occurred in the Legislative Yuan. The party with the largest number of seats in the legislature is no longer the KMT, but rather the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), due to how the CCP has taken possession of the KMT.
“Possession” is just the right word, with the KMT blindly shuffling after the CCP like a lackey. Wang renamed Fu “Fu Chi-kun.” This “short grass growing on the tops of the Kunlun mountains,” as Fu himself puts it — is the linchpin in the CCP’s maneuverings. The CCP is attempting to apply pressure wherever it can in the legislature through Fu. Of course, its control over Fu does not detract from the CCP’s overall bullying of the KMT, just as it did with former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). The mission it assigned Fu just happens to be grander than Ma’s. After all, Fu is the one in office.
He is also concentrating forces into a group of “Fu-followers.”
After the KMT troupe of 17 returned to Taiwan, they blatantly implemented their CCP marching orders, including directly parroting China’s proposals for Taiwan, such as KMT Legislator Hsu Yu-chen’s (許宇甄) provisional proposal in a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee that would request that departments and legislative committees such as the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the Mainland Affairs Council restart passenger ferry services between Taiwan and Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province. KMT Legislator Chang Chi-lun (張智倫) inquired whether the ban on Taiwanese tour groups traveling to China could be rescinded before the policy expires on May 31. Fu demanded that the limit of 2,000 Chinese tourists per day be immediately abolished.
KMT members acting as if they are delegates to China’s National People’s Congress, such as KMT Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭), who just withdrew a proposal to amend the Labor Standards Act (勞基法), have advocated cutting probationary employee pay to as little as 80 percent of a regular employee’s pay. The language of their would-be bill exactly mirrored Article 15 of China’s “Regulation on the Implementation of the Employment Contract Law of the People’s Republic of China.” Beyond that, they tried to shield themselves behind the outdated language of the Constitution when they on May 1 used their legislative majority to amend the language of a Democratic Progressive Party bill to completely replace the word “China” with the word “mainland.” The KMT is trying to covertly change Taiwan’s Constitution to fully align with China’s.
The group as a whole is throwing its entire weight behind such proposals. What parting gifts did they receive from the CCP before they returned? Well, they were rewarded with a verbal offer of 100 Chinese-style modular homes.
In stark contrast, the Czech government announced it would donate US$150,000 for disaster relief in Hualien County. Were these 17 KMT members doing nothing more than begging the entire time they were in China? It only hurts their image more knowing that the Japanese government also donated US$1 million, in addition to the ￥90 million (US$577,517) generously donated by several Japanese relief foundations. Japan never demanded that Taiwan recognize itself as a part of Japan in exchange for relief, nor did the Japanese announce that Japan and Taiwan belonged to the same country. The KMT’s “ice-breaking” meetings with the CCP are nothing more than depraved theatrical performances.
If the KMT wishes to show that the CCP is truly the largest party in the legislature, then it shows that the KMT is being used as a pawn and not serving the interests of the nation. Could it be that the party’s name just shows that the “Chinese” part of the name is merely slapped onto “Nationalist Party.” Or is it that “Chinese” and “Nationalist Party” are one and the same?
Fu is leading the KMT along a perilous path, and KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and others who have fostered Fu’s behavior stubbornly see themselves as infallible and adhere to a different set of rules.
They are going to eventually reap what they sow, not realizing that Fu and his ilk are going to turn on them in the end.
Tzou Jiing-wen is the editor-in-chief of the Liberty Times, sister newspaper to the Taipei Times.
Translated by Tim Smith
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