The History Questionnaire that President Tsai Must Answer

 The History Questionnaire that President Tsai Must Answer

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

July 1, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

President Tsai’s first term is a failure; now that she is seeking re-election, she must review with humility the inadequacies in the governance of her term. To rule a nation, President Tsai must face squarely the many constant as well as variable factors confronted by Taiwan and introduce corresponding countermeasures. First, she must ascertain Taiwan’s relations with the world; several external relationships are 100% ascertained, one of which is Taiwan’s destiny cannot avoid being affected by the Mainland. The Mainland believes that Taiwan is a part of China, that reunification is a historical issue that must be accomplished, while Taiwan is determined to safeguard its sovereign status and way of life.

Second, the Mainland will not abandon "one country, two systems", which is also ascertained. Xi Jinping proposed “a Taiwan program for one country, two systems", which means that, outside the Hong Kong model, Xi proposed exploring a new model for Taiwan; the emphasis is to give Taiwan a modus vivendi for returning to the big dome of China. After losing the ambiguous space under the 1992 Consensus, President Tsai must ponder on how to rebuild her basis for dialogue with the Mainland. President Tsai cannot care about her current electoral campaign, she must ponder from the perspective of history and think about how to cope with the new proposal by Xi Jinping.

While the US and China are engaged in a frenzied trade war, the Trump government's hawkish faction are happy to exert pressure on the Mainland through Taiwan, even using it as a bargaining chip on the negotiating table, hence a series of acts friendly to Taiwan has emerged. Once the United States and China start a new relationship, then as a pawn Taiwan’s function will recede as a consequence, but must itself face the Mainland, the unshirkable giant factor.

President Tsai’s cross-Strait policy must be based on determinant factors as well as un-determinant variables in its external environment, and not on its own subjective expectations; Tsai’s anti-China policy is a dead-end alley. Now that President Tsai has won the DPP primary, she should pull up the stature in her electoral campaign, and ponder how to regain the goodwill in the past, in order to find an outlet for Taiwan, and in a way, respond to Xi Jinping’s Taiwan program for one country, two systems. This is not only an electoral battle, but a page of history; President Tsai will sign her name for the merits and demerits in this page of history.

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