President Tsai’s National Day Message Could Not Cover Up the Feeble Defenses in the Rear

  President Tsai’s National Day Message Could Not Cover Up the Feeble Defenses in the Rear

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

October 12, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

President Tsai Ing-wen’s National Day message presented a litany of countermeasures vis-à-vis the nation’s changing situation, both domestic and abroad. Externally, she stressed national security, while building up national strength, continuing reforms, and calling for solidarity. On the surface, the message looks to have covered all aspects without a hitch, trying with all efforts to seek progress with steadiness; however, the message is incapable of dealing with the embarrassment of the electoral campaign tensions as well as feeble domestic defenses in internal administration. Yesterday, the TAIEX sharply plunged 500 points, breaking through the 10,000 mark, showing that her pep talk for confidence had no capacity for sustaining it.

In the chinks of the US-China confrontation and under the Blue-Green electoral sandwiching, Tsai Ing-wen hoisted the protective umbrella of the "Republic of China", to show appeasement and external balancing with "no confrontation, nor concessions" to cope with the crisis. This kind of strategy sailed through last year; this year it has become a cliché, apparently losing its effectiveness. The Mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) defines Tsai’s message as "two-state rhetoric," believing it "corroborated anti-China forces with the West," further deteriorating cross-Strait relations. On the one hand, Tsai Ing-wen echoed US Vice President Pence’s counter China speech, and on the other hand, trying to avoid being pushed to the firing line in the US-China chess game; this kind of opportunist, fuzzy calculations obviously has not achieved its goal, conversely leavingTaiwan in an even more perilous situation.

Tsai Ing-wen’s message has catapulted all problems to the "national security" level, from foreign policy, military, social, and economic facets to construct four lines of defense, with a grandiose structure but no solid content. There are two major factors: Externally, despite the fact that United States endlessly released statements friendly to Taiwan in its counter China situation, Taiwan is only treated as a "chess piece," being unhelpful to underpin the calls in Tsai’s message. Domestically, on account of the Tsai government’s maladministration at the central level, it has caused popular grievances everywhere, leading to the DPP’s disadvantages in many counties and cities in the campaigns for the elections next month. The domestic predicament could possibly be more severe and thorny than the cross-Strait situation.

Facing the changes in the international politico-economic situation and cross-Strait relations, Tsai Ing-wen has not yet found the nation’s best strategy and outlet for Taiwan, being even unable to extricate herself from the domestic politico-economic malaise and social collapse. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) even revealed crucial "solidarity code" in Tsai Ing-wen’s National Day message as "Republic of China, Taiwan." However, nowadays in the overall predicament, the external defenses are not solid, and in the feeble rear defenses, intramural fighting still continues; how could Taiwan find unity and peace?

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