Rebuild Self-confidence and Jointly Establish with the M’land a Best System

  Rebuild Self-confidence and Jointly Establish with the M’land a Best System

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

September 12, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

In the last 30 years since the Mainland reformed and opened up, a subversive turn-around in the contrast of cross-Strait strengths appeared on the Mainland, which upgraded into the world's second biggest economy and a military power in Asia, even having changed the global geopolitical strategic structure and setting off a wave of restructuring a new global politico-economic paradigm. The Tsai government misjudged the current cross-Strait situation, overlooking the destructive force of rejecting the "1992 Consensus" on cross-Strait relations, bearing a pressure from Beijing greater than its predecessors.

Taiwan’s linkage with the world is very important, but its relationship with the Mainland is even more so, while facing the critical juncture of the geopolitical picture and of the breaking up and reconstruction of economic-trade norms, Taiwan must find its own position in the changing cross-Strait relations and the global order restructuring to create the maximum value for Taiwan so as to cope with the possible challenges in future cross-Strait relations and to obtain the most advantageous bargaining chips.

Taiwan is a success model for the development of global small and medium-sized enterprises, but it is also a paradigm of one-party rule moving toward democracy. Taiwan’s open civil society, freedom of speech and protection of human rights have won international recognition; this is precisely the "unfinished lessons" following the success of the Mainland’s economic reform and opening up. The Mainland will not follow the road of Western democracy, but it still needs to explore its own sustainable system that the people will be willing to safeguard with their lives. The two sides of the Strait have the same cultural background; the Green camp should not overlook the attractiveness of the Taiwan experience to the people on the Mainland people, but should pick up Lee Teng-hui’s self-confidence to "build a new center for China" and erect with the Mainland a "best system."

The Mainland is in the midst of exploring how to rule by law under the one-party system; Taiwan, regardless of ruling or opposition parties, should all the more abide by democratic concepts and the rule of law, defending freedom of the press and academic neutrality, educating the younger generation on independent thinking, so as to make the Taiwan experience become a benign contrast and assistance in cross-Strait development.

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