“Let Products Ship Out and People Come In,” the New Momentum for Cross-Strait Relations

“Let Products Ship Out and People Come In,” the New Momentum for Cross-Strait Relations

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

November 29, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

The voters used their ballots to “flunk” the mid-term exam for the Tsai government; the stock market staged a celebratory show: tourism, construction, and other so-called "Han Kuo-yu concept stocks" surged. Han Kuo-yu originally planned to travel to Xiamen for the Cross-Strait Entrepreneur Summit at the invitation of Terry Guo, however subsequently for health reasons and for more urgent work of organizing the City Hall team, he changed his plans. These phenomena reflected two challenges: One is Han Kuo-yu’s slogan “Kaohsiung making big money” received high expectations from the private sector, so much so that he must try to implement his pledge. Second is the so-called "let products ship out and people come in" to a high degree relies on cross-Strait interactions and goodwill; this will constitute pressure on Tsai Ing-wen’s cross-Strait policies.

Han Kuo-yu proclaimed that he would set up at City Hall a “cross-Strait working group” on the premises of the 1992 Consensus to engage in economic/trade communication with the Mainland to help Kaohsiung find outlets for its economy. Blue camp newly-elected chiefs of local governments have echoed one after another; Taichung’s Lu Shiow-yen wants to strive for the economy and pay more attention to bread and butter issues, but not talk about politics. Nantou’s Lin Ming-chen has also said, "If the central government does not do it, we, the local governments will." In Taipei, Ko Wen-je, who advocates "people on both sides of the Strait are like family," has also restarted the Taipei-Shanghai Twin City Forum, scheduled for next month. On the Mainland side, the Taiwan Affairs Office under the State Council not only stated "welcome city-to-city exchanges and cooperation across the Strait"; travel agencies on the other side of the Strait have included Cijin as a highlight for Taiwan tours in order to show support for Han Kuo-yu in another way.

In fact, not only Blue camp counties and cities harbor expectations for expanded cross-Strait tourism exchanges, the newly re-elected Mayor of Taoyuan Chen Wen-tsan has also directed his call to Beijing, hoping that cross-Strait relations as a whole should move in a direction with more goodwill, saying that "exchanges should not differentiate between Blue and Green." The implication is that with regard to the benefits of cross-Strait exchanges, Taoyuan also wants to share a piece of the pie. This kind of statement may also be deemed as a disguised appeal to Tsai Ing-wen.

Despite the fact that Tsai Ing-wen has still stressed that "cross-Strait policies fall under the purview of the central government," facing the overwhelming "new vox populi," Tsai probably could not remain oblivious. It is logical and natural that chiefs of local governments strive for the economy; as long as they do not overstep the sensitive red line, such as signing political agreements, and maintain the principles of "parity" and "dignity," the central government should of course extend its support and not block it all the way.

We also want to remind Tsai Ing-wen: the vox populi has used their ballots to tell the DPP that "caring for the belly” is precisely the more important thing. It is not only the voice of Kaohsiung residents, but the unanimous expectations of other counties and cities. In such a case, her erroneous cross-Strait path in the past two and a half years should, therefore, be adjusted and revised in time. We at the same time want to remind Beijing: only goodwill can we win the hearts of the people on Taiwan. The principle of "the 1992 Consensus, One China with Different Interpretations" did not at one time win Beijing’s full recognition, letting the Blue camp’s cross-Strait narrative lose its balance. How to reconstruct the basis for cross-Strait exchanges in the future is an important issue.

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