See Through Lai Ching-te’s Showdown Card Between Reunification & Independence

 See Through Lai Ching-te’s Showdown Card Between Reunification & Independence

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

March 21, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

Amid the astonishment of the ruling and opposition circles, Lai Ching-te dropped a bombshell in the 2020 presidential election. Beginning from now, Taiwan and cross-Strait relations have entered the periphery of a super-political storm; the advocacies of political progression and path that had originally been sought could wait for a smooth ending, however, would accelerate for a frontal battle in the 2020 presidential election of the century, for a direct showdown. Sandwiched between internal and external pressures, the situation has become perilous; Taiwan is walking at the crossroads for opting for peace or war.

Lai Ching-te, while premier, publicly self-styled himself as a "pragmatic Taiwan independence worker" in the august halls of the parliament, having thus erected an image and identity as "heir to the Taiwan independence faction," while in the political world of Taiwan, the pro-independence faction could be described as having an influence that could not be overlooked, yet a force was hanging and circling hidden in plain sight. In various elections, there were not many powerful candidates hoisting the banner of Taiwan independence; Lai Ching-te was probably the only bigwig occupying the highest office with the strongest strength among the pro-independence faction who dared to clear-cutly promote the ideal of Taiwan independence. For this reason, besides Lai’s opening gambit in the presidential race being pardoning "Taiwan independence faction leader" Chen Shui-bian, in the future electoral campaign, Lai Ching-te would use all efforts to elevate the strength of "anti-China, pro-independence," drawing Taiwan into a populist tsunami of a reunification-independence battle, even into the perilous state of an unpredictable war; for this we absolutely must carefully fathom and strictly prevent.

As to the plebiscite for changing the national title and writing a new constitution to be pushed for in April by the "Formosa Alliance," a pro-Taiwan independence organization, how Lai Ching-te is going to echo, we of course have to further observe, but judging from the DPP's "Taiwan independence" talk in the past, which swayed between reality and fiction, Lai Ching-te’s entry into the DPP primary has been elevated to "realizing Taiwan independence" dedicated to pushing for changing the national title and writing a new constitution!

What is foreseeable is that if the aforementioned situation continues to develop, it will cross the red line of the Mainland and the United States. Once the tolerated bottom line of "maintaining the status quo" is broken, what kind of more stringent measures the Mainland would adopt, the ruling and opposition circles and the whole populous of Taiwan must have a much higher sense of risks, which cannot be overlooked in the least. And as an important guarantor of Taiwan’s security, the US has already publicly expressed its opposition to various plebiscite propositions for changing the national title and writing a new constitution. As to Lai Ching-te taking a further step to promote the Taiwan independence path, how will the US cope with it, it is absolutely impermissible to “steal a bell only covering one’s ears.”

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