The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) has disingenuously attempted to compare its chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) with former South African president Nelson Mandela, framing a narrative for Ko’s arrest by saying that “the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] is oppressing A-bei [Ko],” and that “the international community will not stand for it.”
However, nobody in the international community has expressed support for Ko, with the exception of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
During its first regular press conference for the summer, which it dedicated to Ko’s plight, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) accused the DPP government of conducting a campaign of “green terror” and oppressing anyone who did not agree with “Taiwan separatism.”
Furthermore, the TAO said that polling in Taiwan is concealing the truth.
The TAO is a foreign government organization more than 1,720km away from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, and yet it claims to have insider knowledge of the ongoing legal case. This is utterly absurd. Has Interpol considered moving its headquarters to Taiwan yet?
After Chinese officials proclaimed their “strong support for Ko,” Hong Kong-based news outlet China Review News Agency put out two opinion articles in quick succession.
The first article said the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was “being wishy-washy in voicing its support for Ko, and that it was missing a great opportunity.”
The second article called for the KMT and the TPP to “safeguard opposition party cooperation as a means of fighting the ‘green terror.’”
These two articles were published after the TAO made its statement. They are clear in showing that “backing Ko” is the real impetus for the CCP in this whole saga.
The CCP has already decided to “make Ko one of their own,” acknowledging that the TPP “has value” as useful idiots. The CCP does not want its fledgling “blue-white [KMT-TPP] coalition” to die an early death.
Even for those in the minority, such as TPP Legislator Chen Chao-tzu (陳昭姿), Ko is still a “deep green-leaning politician.”
Yet Ko’s positions on national sovereignty and cross-strait relations have apparently long been separate from the general view of the TPP.
Ko has several dubious and colorful expressions, including his statement in May 2015 that “one China is not the problem,” his description of Chinese and Taiwanese in August 2015 as being “one family on two sides of the [Taiwan] Strait,” the absolute gem from October 2018 that “Taiwan is just a pawn of the US” and his statement in October last year in the run-up to this year’s general election that “I would not completely refuse the ‘1992 consensus.’”
Not only do such proclamations fully align with the CCP’s ideology that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to China. We are opposed to Taiwan separatists and foreign interlopers,” Ko’s statements allow the CCP to continue to breathe life into its shambling puppet in Taiwan, the KMT. The CCP sees a new milestone in its war to annex Taiwan through a “cooperative partner” in the TPP.
The CCP’s “united front” is targeting the DPP and would not refrain from interfering in Taiwanese politics with its foreign proclamations. It is gunning for a blue-white coalition.
After Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) went on a special trip to China last year, former president Ma rushed to “head to the mountains” to act as part-time referee for a KMT-TPP coalition working group.
China Review News Agency pleaded several times that the KMT and TPP “join hands to monitor the DPP.” They also wanted KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) to “abolish the Anti-Infiltration Act [反滲透法].”
This is why Beijing is enthusiastic about a blue-white coalition and wants to continue manipulating the KMT and the TPP into impeding the DPP from leading Taiwan. The CCP wants to advance the establishment of a pro-China administration in Taiwan to make annexation all the more easier.
The CCP still needs the TPP’s sustained cooperation “to make friends with those who want to move Taiwan closer to China and oppose the green camp.” After all, it is difficult for the CCP to rely solely on the KMT to achieve its goals. The CCP has little choice but to support Ko if it wants to realize its annexation goal.
However, when the day comes that Ko’s “collapsing facade” causes Taiwan’s political centrists and young voters to look at supporting other candidates and parties, symbolizing the TPP’s devolution into a spent force, the CCP might withdraw all its “care and concern” and “betrothal pledges” to the KMT and the TPP.
I hope the TPP does not keel over and sink into the melodramatic romantic-comedy waters of “international [Chinese] concerns.” It should not forget that love from Beijing is a fickle, bitter thing — the reality of Beijing’s “love” is a matter of brutality.
Jethro Wang is a former secretary at the Mainland Affairs Council.
Translated by Tim Smith
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
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
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
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of