When "Countering" Becomes the Top Priority of the Lai Cabinet

  When "Countering" Becomes the Top Priority of the Lai Cabinet

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

August 7, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

Targeting the 44 foreign airline operators that changed Taiwan’s designation under pressure from the Mainland’s Civil Aviation Administration, Wu Hong-mo, Minister Transportation and Communications (MOTC), declared that the Ministry would adopt  "countermeasures.” For those airline operators that have changed our designation to "Taiwan, China," the Ministry would consider not allowing their flights to use moving passenger bridges (Jetways) and readjusting their time slots for arrivals and departures as penalties. For those airline operators that indicated Taipei and not prefixing "China," the Ministry would grant reductions or exemptions of fees for landing and other preferential incentives. Even the MOTC has used the participation in cross-Strait wrangling as a top priority; it is easy to imagine what position the Lai Cabinet has assigned to bread and butter, as well as economic issues.

After successive diplomatic setbacks, right now, the top strategy of the Tsai government is "countering"; it is not surprising that the Lai Cabinet has exerted all efforts at its command to collaborate. However, if it does not undertake a fundamental review from the perspective of holistic strategy, but only attempts to fight for face-saving in the peripherals, we are afraid, it would spawn even more sequelae.

Regrettably, people cannot see any proactive undertakings to develop the economy and reconstruct Taiwan on the part of the government, but rather they see the government spend a great deal of energy every day to deal with and blame the opposition camp, and exerting more energy to engage in senseless, exhausting confrontation with the Mainland. Let us ask: even if the stick and carrot policies of MOTC Minister Wu Hong-mo in dealing with foreign airline operators would achieve their goals, does he have any sticks that could beat the other side of the Strait and make it feel pain? Not at all! And in the end, the chain victim is the Taiwan public and the innocent passengers traveling to and from Taiwan.

When Lai Ching-te is obsessed with countering, he has forgotten the prime motive of this governance. When the MOTC Minister only thinks about imposing sanctions on foreign airline operators, he has forgotten Taiwan’s population, just as the Mainland Affairs Council has forgotten the Kinmen population’s badly needed water pipeline.

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