To Counter the M’land, Take Care Not to Hurt Others by Hurting Ourselves Instead

 To Counter the M’land, Take Care Not to Hurt Others by Hurting Ourselves Instead

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

June 24, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

With regard to the Mainland’s diplomatic oppression, President Tsai Ying-wen stated in anger, “We will no longer tolerate it”; Premier Lai Ching-te also lambasted the Mainland’s preferential measures for Taiwan, saying their objective was to “annex Taiwan.” National Security Council Secretary-General David Lee went a step further by asking the people to opt not to take flights on “airline operators that had succumbed to China.” Though the Mainland’s oppression hurts the feelings of Taiwan’s public, if the Tsai government wants to counteract in this manner, we are afraid that there is quite a distance from the public's thinking.

The public do not agree with the Mainland’s oppression, but they in fact do not have too much confidence in the Tsai government’s capability to maintain the cross-Strait status quo or Taiwan’s international living space. Especially ironic is that recent polls indicate that Taiwan’s public goodwill toward the Mainland increased rather than decreased. In other words, in the two years under Tsai’s presidency, the trends of public opinion have changed; people no longer follow the government’s clarion call with respect. The winds have begun to blow, but the Tsai government has blindfolded its eyes, feigning not to see that the people’s hearts are in the process of drifting away from the DPP.

The mutual goodwill of people across the Taiwan Strait is the vital foundation for cross-Strait peaceful development. In Taiwan, the fact that people’s goodwill towards the Mainland has increased is helpful for shaking off the KMT’s erstwhile anti-Communist rhetoric and the DPP’s current anti-China sentiments, and helpful for promoting cross-Strait peaceful and stable development. The Tsai government has abandoned the 1992 consensus, moving in the opposite direction of the vox populi; when the people have lost identifation with the government's policies, even their goodwill towards the Mainland has surpassed ill feelings, the DPP’s predicament is thus exposed.

Mainland China has endlessly proposed "preferential measures for Taiwan" because it feels self-confident in its system and development path; therefore, it voiced to Taiwan that "the two sides of the Strait have entered into a competition for systems and talent." The Tsai government calls on the people to opt not to take flights operated by airlines that have degraded Taiwan; this is a kind of "closed-road" thinking. In contrast, the Mainland’s preferential measures for Taiwan, on the other hand, are an "open door" strategy. The DPP may as well imagine: "Closed-road versus open-door, which will win out?”

The majority of Taiwan people still believe in the values ​​of democracy and human rights, but the DPP must not only resort to "howling," forever only using the pretext that "national dignity" has been belittled to take advantage the people’s feelings. Once democracy turns into populism, which in turn moves towards authoritarianism, constitutional government is frequently trampled upon, and the social fabric is endlessly torn asunder; this would not only cause the collapse of economic development and national competitiveness, but would also make it difficult for people to resist seeking opportunities for development on the other side of the Strait. At this time, if the government still continues to see itself as the vanguard of democracy, believing it could guide civic movement on the Mainland, while not reflecting on the internal issues of decaying democracy, then that would be ignorance of one’s strength.

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