Not Facing the M’land Would Lead to Reunification Without Dignity

  Not Facing the M’land Would Lead to Reunification Without Dignity

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

October 11, 2017

 Translation of an Excerpt

President Tsai Ing-wen delivered a message on Double Ten National Day. This “submission of answer sheet without really submitting it” would allow the Mainland to change its stance from “expected uncertainty” to “confirmed zero expectations”; the Mainland wouldn’t be unable to understand, and would strengthen “unilateralism" and "one-sidedness" in response. This is not equivalent to moving toward the path of military reunification, which has created a cacophony of controversial debates. But it would include the "pauperizing Taiwan", "selling out Taiwan" or other actions such as "international containment" and "demonstration of force" as analyzed by former Deputy Defense Minister Lin Chong-pin and others. The intensity and frequency of pressure would escalate; this would be a very bad situation for Tsai Ying-wen and Taiwan.

If Tsai Ying-wen and her national security team had not pondered such effects, it would be dereliction of duty and child’s play. However, if they had pondered this and still proceeded with this plan, then that would a misjudgment of the situation. Even if the Mainland should abandon the "1992 Consensus" with the KMT, it would not give an inch to the DPP on the issue of "one China." If the DPP wants to erect a new model of interactions with the Mainland, it would possibly have to pay a greater price.

Among the many problems Taiwan faces, the cross-Strait relationship has always been the most important of them all, and the core of the core. If cross-Strait relations should go into a free fall and infinite decline, the end result would be, as everybody knows, "reunification without dignity." This is something unavoidable and something unescapable. Even if Tsai Ying-wen chose not to face the problem on National Day, nor to face during talks between the ruling and opposition parties, the cross-Strait problems will still entangle Taiwan, and entangled Tsai Ing-wen's governance.

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