KMT’s ‘wine’ farce
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative whip Fu Kun-chi’s former chief of staff in Hualien City, Chiang Pang-fa (蔣邦法), said during a recent city council session that “unification with China is inevitable.”
Chiang apparently thinks that China should not be provoked, that Taiwan needs to “behave” and that “one should drink sweet wine in a toast rather than being forced to drink bitter wine as a penalty.”
It is farcical that “China’s little echoes” in the KMT — including Fu — have so little concern about saying Taiwanese should give China “respect.”
Mainstream opinion is that “neither side of the Taiwan Strait is subservient to the other” and that “Taiwan is a sovereign, independent nation.” The ratio of those who support joining China is vanishingly small, already a tiny minority of the nation’s populace.
Chiang’s comment that “unification is inevitable” is hogwash.
Taiwan’s democratic freedoms are renowned throughout the world. Nobody is going out of their way to annoy China, but China treats Taiwan as if it were a younger sibling, constantly threatening it.
The euphemism about “drinking sweet wine” shows that Chiang is completely on China’s side and it was a subtle threat against the homeland. He seems to be an accomplice to China’s verbal and military threats, and posturing. What he does not seem to realize is that Taiwan and China are adversaries in terms of political and military affairs, and China is the one that started it.
Chiang grew up in Taiwan, ate Taiwanese rice and was educated here. He won re-election through the democratic mechanism by Taiwanese as a representative of a Taiwanese city. His salary comes from the Taiwanese electorate.
Are there no regulations to punish him for brazenly carrying China’s water, subtly threatening the homeland and trying to sell Taiwanese on “obedience” to China while portraying himself as a benevolent actor while selling Taiwan out?
Tien Fong-wen
New Taipei City
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