With Taiwan's Barren Visions, How Does It Deal with Xi Jinping’s Ambitions?

 With Taiwan's Barren Visions, How Does It Deal with Xi Jinping’s Ambitions?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

October 26, 2017

 Translation of an Excerpt

The curtain fell on the 19^th National People’s Congress of the Mainland; Xi Jinping wrote into the party charter his thinking and broke the tradition by not making personnel arrangements for the next term, pushing Mainland China into a new era named after Xi Jinping. All countries focused on the power reorganization of the world's largest political party; what we, however, are more concerned about is Xi Jinping’s actions towards Taiwan after he acceded to the apex of power. We cannot ignore the important issue before our eyes: in the next five years, how is Taiwan going to face the new China of a wealthy state with strong armed forces which Xi Jinping has designed?

Right now, China is solidly anchored as the second largest economy in the world and has joined the club of big powers. Xi Jinping has changed the strategy of “hide our capabilities and bide our time” since Deng Xiaoping, daring to draw his sword and challenge the rules of the West, and even actively taking part in formulating international order. All these have made the international community pay attention to Xi Jinping’s new era of China. In contrast, when China walks onto the center of the world stage, it all the more underscores the strictures of Taiwan’s situation.

After Taiwan's economic miracle has lost its luster, it may still temporarily pride itself on its democracy; for this reason, since coming to office, Tsai Ying-wen has been seeking internationally an alliance of democratic values to counter Mainland China; the DPP even frequently acts like a precursor of democracy, trying to interact with the other side of the Strait and ASEAN countries. However, the populist political maneuverings, radical citizen confrontations, shallow public forums, and fragmented public policy discussions have all endlessly been cutting into the foundation of Taiwan's democracy, and squandered the capacity and momentum to revive the economy.

We want to ask, what are Taiwan's long-term visions and development blueprints? At a time when Mainland China exhibits a high degree of self-confidence and strong ambitions, Taiwan’s society, on the other hand, is showing even more ruptures; Academia Sinica President James Liao recently said that Taiwan lacked self-confidence and vision in various areas, contrasting even more the cross-Strait psychological gap.

Xi Jinping's report to the 19^th National People’s Congress seemingly has erased the misgivings of "reunification by force," however, when Taiwan is left with increasingly shallow democracy and empty visions, Tsai Ying-wen, on the other hand, is powerless to boost the economy and morale, so how is Taiwan going to confront Xi Jinping’s new era? 

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