Strong Showing in Surveys Can’t Solve Current Predicaments

 Strong Showing in Surveys Can’t Solve Current Predicaments

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

January 30, 2020

 Translation of an Excerpt

The Lunar New Year holiday season will soon end; nevertheless, the Wuhan pneumonia has become an economic black swan, with global stock markets plummeting. In Taiwan, people also have to face the reality anew, with external challenges arriving in droves. President Tsai Ing-wen showed her popular support with 8.17 million votes, but it is not sufficient to change the various predicaments confronting us, especially the radicalized domestic divisions, fragile cross-Strait relations, and weakened national competitiveness.

During her multiple public talks and media interviews following electoral victory, Tsai Ing-wen exhibited her complacency and self-confidence. She has insisted that there is no room for negotiations with regard to Taiwan’s sovereignty, and has indicated without any reservation that Taiwan is an independent state whose name is "the Republic of China Taiwan." She has even warned the PRC that Taiwan has abundant confidence in our self-defense capabilities and that invading Taiwan would pay an enormous price. Refusing to accept one China, not precluding the possibility of war, she hopes to dialogue with the Mainland, allowing the stable development of cross-Strait relations, but there must be the premise of "peace, parity, democracy, sovereignty"; bluntly speaking, it is “I am the principal, not minding to risk war”.

President Tsai claims, "Taiwan has adequate military preparedness", but the military balance in the Taiwan Strait basically no longer exists, with young people showing an aversion to war, not willing to join the armed forces. There is no way to dissect the culture, history, and geopolitical relations between the two sides of the Strait. It is difficult to rock the current state that the Mainland market is the lifeline of Taiwan’s economy, which the diversification of markets in the New Southward Policy, pluralistic products of manufacturers, and even upgrading of industries can hardly substitute. Once the Taiwan Strait is in turmoil, the price that Taiwan would pay would be far more expensive than for the Mainland.

Cross-Strait relations are entering an era of "zero consensus"; under the shared objective of maintaining stability and peace in the Taiwan Strait, the only way out would be to pin our hope on cross-Strait leaders to develop political wisdom in order to overcome a series of challenges so as to conform to maximum cross-Strait interests.

Attachment : none