Tsai Ing-wen After Shaking Off Old Green Males

 Tsai Ing-wen After Shaking Off Old Green Males

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

June 18, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

Taiwan’s elections have always been tumultuous. After President Tsai Ing-wen suffered a stunning defeat in last yearend’s nine-in-one local elections, she used up all resources, exhausted all strategies, and utilized external factors as help to shape an image of “Joan of Arc,” forcefully pulling up all the way her support ratings in the DPP presidential primary, which had originally been rock bottom; this could be called the paradigm of a florid turn-around electoral battle. However, national elections are completely different from the party's primary; if President Tsai wants to seek re-election, she must find an outlet for Taiwan; otherwise, no matter how she turns around, it will still be difficult to win sufficient trust of the voters.

With Sino-American relations being strained, President Tsai has all the way been pro-US and anti-China; she has not only compressed the room for those inside Taiwan who advocate cross-Strait reconciliation, but has also possibly been considered by the Mainland to have stepped on the red line of taboo. If this stirs up nationalistic sentiments of Mainland masses, then even the Mainland authorities’ earnest efforts to maintain room for cross-Strait reconciliation may probably be compressed, so much so that cross-Strait risks would be even harder to fathom. This is not how to find an outlet for Taiwan, but to lead Taiwan down a dead end alley.

Xi Jinping has found it very thorny in facing the US-China trade war and the Hong Kong question; the “Fugitive Offenders Ordinance” could be resolved by suspending legislative action; the US-China trade war is, nevertheless, a hard battle. Moreover, the new cold war between the two superpowers in confrontation could possibly continue for a period of time; this progression is sufficient to give the Mainland leadership a headache. When encountering the distrust and pressure of the international community, if Taiwan at this time could release certain goodwill in cross-Strait reconciliation, it could probably make Xi Jinping more willing to respond with a more liberal attitude. If both sides intend to seek commonalities and shelve divergences, they will pull apart to a certain degree the sharp confrontation, leaving room for reconciliation and cooperation.

The crux of cross-Strait issues is not whether they can be done, but whether they need to be done. If we want to do it, ways can always be found. If President Tsai wants to persuade the people to give her four more years, then she must understand that the public are highly dissatisfied with the freezing of cross-Strait relations and diplomatic isolation in the past three years, and they are anxious to see some changes. Tsai declared in her inaugural address in 2016 that both sides of the Strait should jointly cherish and maintain the fruits of the consultations over two decades, and the ruling parties of both sides should lay down their historical baggage, conducting a benign dialogue for the benefit of the people across the Strait. After winning the party's primary, Tsai Ing-wen can finally shake off the hijacking of the old Green males; now it is time that she exhibited goodwill toward the Mainland.

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