Tsai Ing-wen and Chen Ming-tong, a Chaotic Gov’t or Segregated for Domestic and Foreign Audiences?

 Tsai Ing-wen and Chen Ming-tong, a Chaotic Gov’t or Segregated for Domestic and Foreign Audiences?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

July 22, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

After experiencing a wave of diplomatic warfare and military pressures, the two sides of the Strait in recent months again began a new round of dialogue across the ocean in the US-China trade war of the bigger picture of global game theory. On June 25^th, Tsai Ing-wen granted an exclusive interview to Agence France-Presse, and on July 13^th, Lien Chan and Xi Jinping met in Beijing, and then on July 18^th, Chen Ming-tong, chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, visited the United States; there were sharp crossing of barbs across the Strait, on the one hand, but leaving mutual buffer room.

In the Agence France-Presse interview, Tsai Ing-wen elevated the posture in countering the Mainland, urging the international community to jointly curb the Mainland's hegemonic expansion, but also expressed expectations for a "Tsai-Xi meeting." Xi Jinping, however, used the stage of the Lien-Xi meeting to reiterate the "1992 Consensus," clearly stating that he would never tolerate Taiwan independence forces making waves, but also stressing that political divergences should not affect cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation. In the United States, Chen Ming-tong accused Beijing of eroding the sovereignty of the Republic of China in the international community, requesting that the United States prod the Mainland not to unilaterally undermine the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, but he also expressed hopes that both sides would seek respective internal consensus and engage in pragmatic cross-Strait communication and dialogue.

In the meantime, cross-Strait debates on competition for systems merit attention. In several recent statements on cross-Strait relations, Tsai Ing-wen has publicly urged the international community to jointly counter China with an alliance of values. Xi Jinping, on the other hand, used the occasion of meeting with Lien Chan, for the first time publicly demanded that the two sides mutually respect each other's options for systems; besides exhibiting a high degree of self-confidence in systems and self-confidence in paths, Xi Jinping also aimed to respond to Tsai Ing-wen's battle cry in the name of value systems of democracy.

Another section of the dialogue was also quite meaningful. Xi Jinping reiterated to the public in Taiwan that he "completely understood the special mentality of Taiwan compatriots"; he then cited the Opium War and the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 to elucidate his strong national and historical sense of responsibility. Chen Ming-tong, on the other hand, was the first DPP government official to express that he could appreciate that "the oppression contemporary China suffered under Western powers has precipitated into a painful collective memory of the entire nation."

The problem is that the message released by the Tsai government vis-à-vis cross-Strait relations is quite chaotic, suddenly elevating the confrontational tone, suddenly interspersing gestures of goodwill, confusing people. The Tsai government may perhaps describe this as two-handed, both soft and hard; the people only feel the disordered steps, suspicious whether the President really wants to break the cross-Strait impasse, much less talking about being able to guess and understand the true intentions in cross-Strait relations.

From Tsai Ing-wen to Chen Ming-tong, regardless of whether it is a two-handed strategy segregated for domestic and foreign audiences, or a chaotic government, it is not helpful for developing a new relationship.

Attachment : none