2020 Is a Choice Between Independence and No Independence

 2020 Is a Choice Between Independence and No Independence

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

August 8, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

The 2020 presidential election campaign has raised its curtain. In the past six months, President Tsai Ing-wen, on the domestic side, manipulates issues such as anti-China, counter-China, and safeguarding sovereignty, and on the external side, utilizes the pro-Taiwan faction in the US to change the coordinates of US-Taiwan relations, causing a deterioration of cross-Strait relations, and increasing difficulties in grassroots livelihoods. The vox populi is pro-change; cross-Strait relations will be the main axis of next year's general elections.

Since President Tsai came to office, cross-Strait relations have undergone abrupt turns, interchange mechanisms for cross-Strait organizations and their counterparts have been suspended, with channels of communication being fully blocked, and Mainland military aircraft and ships circle around Taiwan, with threatens of military reunification being increased. Now individual tourism from the Mainland has also been temporarily suspended.

Green-Red mutual trust was originally feeble; the Tsai government recently greatly revised the Statute Governing Cross-Strait Relations, restricting cross-Strait interchanges, and amended the Criminal Code and the National Security Act, defining the Mainland as a "hostile external force" in an attempt to block cross-Strait private sector ties; the Mainland has bluntly criticized the Tsai government for initiating Taiwan independence through legislation, and has adopted retaliatory measures.

The two sides of the Strait have returned to the old path of confrontation; the people feel unease and panic over security in the Taiwan Strait. The DPP suffered a stunning defeat in last year’s 9-in-1 local elections, and the people’s dissatisfaction with the Tsai government’s cross-Strait policies was an important element. Now that cross-Strait relations have deteriorated further, the electorate will make adjudication in next year's general elections.

Whether Kaohsiung City Mayor Han Kuo-yu, or those who could throw their hats in the presidential race, such as Foxconn founder Terry Gou, former legislative speaker Wang Jin-ping, or Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je, all advocate cross-Strait peace and stability, hoping to reinitiate cross-Strait consultation mechanisms, pushing for dialogue and communication, seeking mutual benefits and win-win situations. They all oppose that the two sides move toward conflict, oppose one country, two systems, and all believe that Taiwan independence is a non-issue. The difference between the trio is that Han stresses that "the 1992 Consensus is the fundamental policy for cross-Strait interactions," while Gou advocates "without ‘one-China, different interpretations,’ there would be no 1992 Consensus," and Ko supports "the two sides of the Strait are like family."

From all opinion polls, we can see that the people have long loathed of the fierce Blue-Green fights and the fierce fights between pro-reunification and pro-independence elements. However, the 2020 general elections have been manipulated by the DPP government as a "war of reunification versus independence." Looking back at the past two decades, when the DPP was in power, it never seriously implemented Taiwan independence, and while the KMT was in power, it didn’t push for reunification, either. Tsai Ing-wen has never been an "independence element", while Han Kuo-yu is not a "unification element," either. "Reunification" or "independence" has only been a strategy for manipulation in electoral campaigns. The failure of the DPP's cross-Strait policies is not due to the Mainland’s opposition to Taiwan independence, nor due to the Blue camp’s drive for reunification, but should be attributed to the Tsai government’s incompetence.

After 20 years of refining through democratic elections, it shows that Taiwan independence is a non-issue; the problem derives from the fact that the DPP cannot take off the “Emperor’s new robe.” The intelligent electorate should see clearly that the 2020 presidential election is Taiwan's choice between independence and no independence; if Tsai Ing-wen remains obsessed and does not awaken, then use the ballot to let her step down. Only once again taking the DPP off the shelf can we make the DPP take off the “Emperor’s new robe.”

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