Taiwan Independence Elements’ Aggressive Pursuit Versus Tsai Ing-wen’s Options

  Taiwan Independence Elements’ Aggressive Pursuit Versus Tsai Ing-wen’s Options

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

September 7, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

The "plebiscite proposal on rectification of our designation as Taiwan in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics" initiated by deep Green groups was submitted to the Central Election Commission (CEC) with more than 520,000 endorsements. Judging from the current political winds, the CEC would not find faults in vetting, thus this plebiscite would likely be combined with the year-end local elections.

For the deep Green, when their endorsements broke through the barrier, it has become a politico-social movement that would win and not lose. Strictly speaking, how could those in charge of this plebiscite proposal not understand that even if it should pass in the plebiscite election, it would be impossible for the IOC to accept it. How could they not be clear that this kind of plebiscite proposal would likely cause all Taiwan athletes from now on to lose the opportunity of attending international athletic meets. Moreover, it would be impossible for them not to know that this kind of plebiscite proposal would lead the Mainland’s sensitive nerves to become more strained, making cross-Strait relations even more unpredictable. However, all these issues relevant to athletes’ future and Taiwan’s security are not what they want to consider. What they do is to serve for their own ideology, as they firmly believe that this is more important than anything else; they are bent to open Pandora's box, releasing the specter of Taiwan independence.

Tsai Ing-wen has been following Lee Teng-hui’s path, but at the apex of power, she must prudently face the Mainland. She had originally adopted a policy not to challenge Beijing politically, but walked her own way in cultural policies and Taiwan-US relations. "The Tokyo Olympics Plebiscite Proposal," however, could disrupt the steps of Tsai Ing-wen and the DPP, and also break their wishful thinking in calculations by utilizing "the Republic of China in backlisting." When "the Tokyo Olympics Plebiscite Proposal" and the "local elections" are combined together, the DPP party central and candidates would absolutely not dare to entertain any rhetoric not to support "the Tokyo Olympics Plebiscite Proposal," and would even possibly express support with actions.

The aggressive pursuit of the deep Green has, on the one hand, the challenge of the Taiwan independence movement, and also gobbling of power. The Taiwan independence movement is Pandora’s box, once opened, it would be a risk difficult to grasp for various political parties, Blue and Green, as well as Mainland President Xi Jinping and US President Trump. It would be an opportunity for the ones who opened Pandora’s box, for the innocent people, however, it could be an inescapable misfortune. In order to avoid opening the box, President Tsai Ing-wen must make choices.

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