Refusing to Acknowledge Both Sides of the Strait Are One Family, But Traversing Across the Ocean to Seek Kinfolk

  Refusing to Acknowledge Both Sides of the Strait Are One Family, But Traversing Across the Ocean to Seek Kinfolk

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

October 16, 2017

 Translation of an Excerpt

Ke Wen-je echoed Xi Jinping's "both sides of the Strait are one family" and successfully sponsored the World Universiade in Taipei, but regrettably met the Green camp’s ambush by labeling him pro-Red. What is intriguing is while Ke Wen-je was still feeling unsettled by the surprise, Tsai Ying-wen announced her visit to South Pacific diplomatic partners, dubbing the trip as a "journey to seek kinfolk." This move on the part of Tsai Ying-wen is equivalent to unambiguously proclaiming on the eve of the Mainland’s 19^thNational People’s Congress: rejecting “the two sides of the Strait are one family” and willing to traverse the ocean to seek kinfolk in South Pacific island nations.

Tsai Ying-wen's visit to diplomatic partners in the South Pacific was originally legitimate chief of state diplomacy; however, facing the Mainland’s 19th National People’s Congress and the Trump-Xi summit, after repeatedly stressing "exhausting maximum goodwill" and under the circumstances of “having considered the sensitive timing," Tsai still defined this trip as a "journey to seek kinfolk," going to visit the big family of nations in the South Pacific island language groups. At the juncture of the 30^th anniversary of cross-Strait family visits, Tsai Ing-wen, on the one hand, casts a cold eye on “both sides of the Strait are one family,” and on the other hand, traverses across the ocean "to seek kinfolk" 10,000 miles away. What kind of political signal would this send to Xi Jinping, who has been singing the tune of “the great renaissance of the Chinese nation”?

Expanding Taiwan's regional linkages and strengthening our international role and identity are both the right approach. However, if it is a move under strategic shifting of the "pro-US and Japan while distancing from the Mainland,” then it would be inevitable for Tsai Ing-wen to face the embarrassment of continuing the chess game in cross-Strait policy, and Taiwan’s role and identity would continue to drift in the changes of regional order. In fact, the new situation has already been made clear, and the new model is not difficult to fathom; only Tsai Ying-wen’s procrastination and unnecessary hesitation or other sinister plots on her part would make it impossible for Taiwan to grasp its advantages and opportunities.

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