We Ask President Tsai: What’s Wrong with “We Are One Family Across the Strait”?

  We Ask President Tsai: What’s Wrong with “We Are One Family Across the Strait”?

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

February 9, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

Zhang Zhijun, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office under the State Council of the, Mainland, contacted Fu Kun-chi, the county executive of Hualien, indicating that the Mainland was willing to dispatch a search and rescue team to Taiwan. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council replied coldly, saying that domestic professional manpower and equipment for disaster search and rescue were adequate, so there was no need for external assistance. The Hualien earthquake disaster once again deflected the twisted phenomenon in the cross-Strait political deadlock, detaching a cross-Strait relationship which should have been on the correct path of mutual benefits and win-win cooperation. What should have been a cross-Strait relationship of “we are one family” showed instead alienation, mutual suspicion and hostilities. Both sides of the Strait should strive to rectify this kind of unwholesome mentality.

As the mutual trust between the authorities across the Strait has nearly evaporated, even causing hostilities, Beijing circumvented the channels of the SEF and ARATS in the Hualien earthquake disaster this time, using instead the Hualien County executive as its counterpart, in spite of the fact that Zhang Zhijun, director of Taiwan Affairs Office on the Mainland, and Chen Deming, chairman of ARATS, both in their cables expressed condolences and sympathy to the families of the deceased and victims. However, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) of course did not accept the Mainland's approach of circumventing the relevant authorities, and the Mainland was also fully aware that without the permission of the MAC, the Mainland’s search and rescue teams could not make the trip. Precisely because of the political wrangling, the two sides of the Strait delayed and missed the golden opportunity for search and rescue in a disaster, needlessly harming the people's feelings.

In actuality, people on both sides of the Strait use the same language and belong to the same race; they rightly are one family as blood is thicker than water; whether in politics, economics, society, and culture and customs, both are close to each other and compatible to each other; they complement and benefit each other. Taiwan’s culture was originally seeded in the mother soil of Chinese culture. It is not necessary for Taiwan itself, nor can it reject its bloodline and culture; otherwise, it would become what was described as "a rootless orchid" in the words of Chen Zhifan.

Confronting the rise of China, to truly love Taiwan, of course one must at a minimum maintain cross-Strait stability, isn’t striving to maintain a stable cross-Strait relationship also striving to love Taiwan? The DPP should return to the right path of pursuing Taiwan’s maximum interests and not always resort to confronting the Mainland to rally its supporters, the DPP should return to pursuing the maximum interests of Taiwan. Ke Wen-je is willing to try exploring “the two sides of the Strait are one family” in order to seek a new way out for Taiwan; we should be glad to see him succeed. The two sides of the Strait are precisely “one family,” the Mainland leadership has repeatedly emphasized that we are one family across the Strait and all things can be discussed; conversely, insisting on “one family on either side” or “one state on either side” would become a zero sum life-and-death struggle; this would absolutely not be the road that Taiwan should transverse.

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