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Pan-Blue Should Know How Powerful Tsai Ing-wen’s US Card Is

icon2019/07/25
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 Pan-Blue Should Know How Powerful Tsai Ing-wen’s US Card Is

 

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

July 23, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

President Tsai Ing-wen has just concluded her 12-day "Journey of Democracy, Freedom and Sustainability "; it looked like one filled with "momentous breakthroughs", "bright spots" or "historic new pages". However, with respect to the predicament Taiwan faces in its substantive ties with the US and external relations, the help of the tour was limited. Nevertheless, viewed from timeline of the forthcoming six months, if Tsai Ing-wen's "exports for domestic consumption" strategy works, successfully building towards favorable conditions for her re-election bid, it would be a serious challenge for the KMT, which is pursuing a return to power.

On the surface, this trip aimed to consolidate diplomatic ties; as it was closely linked to next January’s presidential election, coupled with the "US card", which is Tsai Ing-wen’s super trump card, it is not hard to imagine the political calculations and manipulations behind this tour, as well as the fact that Taiwan and the US mutually collaborate on the stage for performance, getting what it wants under the framework of US-China confrontation.

From the perspective of the current US political ecology, the rise of Mainland China in all-out confrontation has been the consensus of both the Democratic and Republican parties, as well as the legislative and executive branches of government. The US-China trade war has shaped a "new normal", coupled with the hawks on the up-swing inside the Trump government, US officials are of course happy to play "Taiwan card", stirring up Beijing's most sensitive nerves. This is also the reason the Trump administration gave more room for Tsai Ing-wen’s transits.

The eight-year term of President Ma Ying-jeou was said to be the best time for US-Taiwan relations; however, after the disastrous defeat in the presidential and legislative elections in 2016, the KMT’s work toward the US became nearly entirely interrupted. Within a short three years, the situation has completely tilted toward the DPP, while the KMT has even been labeled "anti-US and pro-China."Although figures in academic, diplomatic and media circles have incessantly issued caveats to the KMT, the US factor has virtually become one of the greatest misgivings for the pan-Blue camp in next year’s presidential election; this question cannot be evaded further.

President Tsai Ing-wen, taking advantage of the trend that the US is countering China's development, has built "the best image in the history of Taiwan-US relations," leading countrymen, unawares of the inner workings, to follow the Tsai government's mistaken path to confront the Chinese Mainland, creating a warm-bed for populist confrontations with escalating cross-Strait people-to-people sentiments of rivalry. The KMT party central and Han Kuo-yu bear a heavy burden on the long way to go.

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