Tsai Ing-wen Twinkles Between Her Roles of President and Party Chairwoman
2018/02/21
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Tsai Ing-wen Twinkles Between Her Roles of President and Party Chairwoman
United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)
February 12, 2018
Translation of an Excerpt
After an earthquake struck Hualien, Tsai Ing-wen went twice to the disaster areas to show her concerns and sympathies for the victims, and also tweeted with simplified Chinese characters to express her concerns to Mainland tourists who were affected. In that instant, the public felt the return of "President Tsai Ing-wen of the Republic of China." However, it lasted only a brief two days; when the Mainland called Hualien County Executive Fu Kun-chi, expressing its sympathies and willingness to offer assistance in search and rescue operations, the Tsai government immediately, without any hesitation, refused, seemingly forgetting the earlier disapproval of Mainland airline operators’ applications for additional New Year holiday flights was claimed to be prompting cross-Strait “dialogue.” At this time, Tsai Ing-wen has virtually changed back to "the DPP party chairwoman."
Watching the President’s statements in the recent period, one may find that it is more and more difficult to see the stature of "President Tsai Ing-wen of the Republic of China," but more and more often one sees the sharpness of "DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen." The public may also find that the wording "Republic of China" has been gradually disappearing from the vocabulary of the government. The wording most often used when Tsai Ing-wen just took office, i.e., solidarity, reconciliation, dialogue and consensus, now can only be found on a few diplomatic occasions or at times of disaster such as the Hualien earthquake. Tsai Ing-wen endlessly transposes between the two roles, i.e., "President of the Republic of China" and "DPP Party Chairwoman," twinkling all the time, with the latter role overshadowing the former most of the time.
Whenever her governance meets setbacks, with sliding support ratings in the polls, she will chant the mantra of "reforms," labeling herself as doing "things the former president did not dare to do," using the pretext that "reforms will inevitably encounter obstacles," but has never been willing to apologize for mistaken government policies. Tsai Ing-wen not only uses reforms to camouflage her maladministration, but also uses whether or not one supports reforms to distinguish friend and foe. Her latest trick is to tout “Taiwan values," a tenet that betrays conscience, to challenge Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je. Its purpose is nothing but to accuse Ko Wen-je's cross-Strait ideals for not conforming with the DPP's Taiwan independence path. Because Tsai Ing-wen's governance has not won people’s support, her approval ratings in the polls have dropped to a new low. Confronted with the crisis of year-end elections, in the recent period, she has even abandoned the role of "president for all people," and used the premises of DPP interests as the axis of decision-making, attempting with all efforts to seek the return of Green votes.
Before she was elected President, this is what Tsai Ing-wen said: "The person who leads the country must have a vision, and must unite the country with maximum capacity, and not conversely for self-chosen interests to mobilize communal group hatred to incite the fears of particular communal groups.” Shouldn’t Chairwoman Tsai ponder: where has the "President Tsai with a vision" gone?
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