President William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday proposed talks with Beijing to ease restrictions on Chinese visiting Taiwan, the Central News Agency wrote.
Lai said that while more than 2 million Taiwanese had visited China last year, fewer than 300,000 Chinese had visited Taiwan, and called China “the real barrier to cross-strait exchanges.”
“If China is genuinely sincere, I suggest that the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association and the Association for Tourism Exchange across the Taiwan Straits begin negotiations [to ease restrictions],” Lai said.
Naturally, there is no possibility that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would engage in talks with Lai or any other member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Doing so would be contradictory to the CCP’s public discourse on the DPP, which it depicts as a promoter of Taiwanese independence and consequently as an enemy of the Chinese people.
To be fair, this mindset is apt in the case of Lai, who has publicly referred to himself as a “pragmatic worker for Taiwan independence.” As recently as Oct. 11 last year, China’s state-backed Global Times quoted Lai as saying as much, and called him a “pragmatic war instigator.”
Since taking office, Lai has not called for changes to Taiwan’s Constitution to enshrine its independence, but he has reiterated an earlier statement by former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) about neither side of the Strait being subordinate to each other.
Lai and Tsai have also on different occasions said that formal declarations of Taiwan’s independence are unnecessary, since Taiwan is already independent. All of this is to say that the CCP would have no interest in dialogue with the DPP, since the DPP is fully uninterested in unification with China, which is the CCP’s sole goal in talks with Taiwanese authorities. Nevertheless, Lai’s suggestion of such talks is not without purpose. Lai is demonstrating to Taiwanese voters and the international community that the DPP is open to talks with the CCP, and open to peaceful resolution of any cross-strait disagreements.
This openness also serves to invalidate any suggestions by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that the DPP is the cause of a diplomatic impasse between Taiwan and China.
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) on Wednesday said that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait are part of a collective ethnic Chinese group and share the same Chinese culture.”
The only difference between the two sides is in their respective political systems, Chu said.
“Only by seeking common ground while respecting differences can the two sides of the Taiwan Strait maintain peace,” he said.
Chu’s first point is irrelevant, since many countries share linguistic and cultural commonalities. Should Singapore be a part of China, as the majority of its population is Chinese speakers who follow traditions also found in China? Should the US be a part of the UK, as most Americans speak English as their first language, and they adhere to holidays and religious traditions also found in the UK?
Chu’s second point lacks context, since he does not explain how China’s political system is relevant to cross-strait relations, and his third point is moot because it arguably applies to all bilateral relations.
It makes little sense for the KMT to argue that Lai should communicate with Beijing, when it very clearly is Beijing that is not open to communication with Lai.
The CCP employs a “carrot and stick” approach when it comes to its relations with Taiwan. It uses trade barriers to try to turn the public against the DPP, and it rewards Taiwanese who follow its “one China policy” and pro-unification agenda. Therefore, tourism restrictions are likely to be lifted only if Beijing can paint the lifting as an achievement of the KMT, which it apparently considers to be pliable.
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
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS