Moriarty’s Taiwan Visit Reflects the Tsai Government's Predicament, Both Domestic and Foreign

  Moriarty’s Taiwan Visit Reflects the Tsai Government's Predicament, Both Domestic and Foreign

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

December 14, 2017

 Translation of an Excerpt

James Moriarty, Chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, came to Taiwan for a visit last week and called on Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan and President Tsai Ing-wen. The deepest impression that the public has had for Moriarty is no more than his 2003 visit, warning and dissuading Chen Shui-bian from pushing for a “plebiscite combined with the general election”; at that time, he was senior director for Asia at the US National Security Council. This time is his first visit to Taiwan since the CCP’s 19th National People’s Congress and Trump's visit to China. His words and calls reflected the Tsai government’s embarrassed situation, from domestic to cross-Strait and foreign affairs.

During this visit to Taiwan, in addition to touching on cross-Strait and foreign policy issues, Moriarty showed concerns about domestic issues. At the Legislative Yuan, he did not raise the sensitive issue of US pork imports, rather he showed concerns from the onset on the political effect of the "Statute Governing the Handling of Transformational Justice." In addition to worrying about Mainland China’s possible associating this Statute with "de-Sinicization," he also reminded those he spoke with that Taiwan must be cautious on the issue of name changes and not too drastic in the procedure in order to avoid the rupture of social fabric and Beijing’s reactions. Moriarty reminded the Tsai government not to get carried away with transformational justice; apparently, the United States believes that the Tsai government’s political maneuverings could shake and rock the foundation for freedom and democracy in Taiwan, and endanger cross-Strait peace and stability, even harming the US position of supporting Taiwan.

Moriarty's concern about transformational justice poked a hole in the fog of the DPP's so-called "historical truth" and "social reconciliation," pointing directly at the DPP's motives. We can only say that the DPP has an urgency for transformational justice, but its mentality is perverted, the grounds too weak, and the political operations are too crude.

Tsai Ing-wen continuously manipulates political issues, attempting to break through the predicament of “one mandatory holiday, one flexible day-off” and serious air pollution.  Moriarty’s visit this time, however, surprisingly exposed the Tsai government’s embarrassed situation, from domestic to cross-Strait and foreign affairs. Moiarty's concern about transformational justice led to the loss of the halo over "freedom and democratization" that Tsai Ing-wen touted, and also led to the shaking and rocking of "maintaining the status quo" that she so emphasized. In contrast, it is unknown how much protection Tsai Ing-wen will get from the United States by her strong protestations of pandering. However, the PLA’s air force and navy cruises around the island have become the "new normal."

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