M’land "Is Willing to Lose a Few Stones"[in a Go Chess Game], Does Tsai Ing-wen Understand?

M’land "Is Willing to Lose a Few Stones"[in a Go Chess Game], Does Tsai Ing-wen Understand?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

August 18, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

Cross-Strait relations have made a sudden turn for the worse; besides banning its movies and cinematographic professionals from attending the Golden Horse Film Festival in Taiwan, the Mainland, in a rare move, publically banned individual tourism to Taiwan, as well as reportedly restricting tour groups to the island. The outside world focuses its attention on what other punitive measures the Mainland will take out from its toolbox, but the deeper hidden worries are: in Beijing's move to switch on the red light in cross-Strait private sector interchanges, what is the direction for its decisions?

The Taiwan Affairs Office under the State Council clear-cutly points out that it is because the DPP government relentlessly pushes for Taiwan independence activities, "inciting a sense of hostility among Taiwan people towards the Mainland, creating cross-Strait divide", harming the foundation and terms for Mainland individual tourism to Taiwan. The Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office in analyzing the deterioration of the Hong Kong question, even at the same time, points by name to the intervention by the US and Taiwan. These all show that Beijing does not pin any hopes on the Blue and Green, putting emphasis on the direction of Taiwan’s vox populi. If the vox populi shifts toward independence to counter China, cross-Strait relations would then quickly and easily break the underpinnings of "peaceful resolution." Closing the doors in policies would no doubt be an early warning signal tossed out on Taiwan and the international community.

In order to manage cross-Strait risks, the Mainland would think nothing of restricting peace dividends, massively backpedaling private sector interchanges. This elicited a warning from President Tsai Ing-wen, saying "committing strategic blunders of a policy nature” would lose Taiwan’s vox populi. Her words were not wrong; however, conversely, the Mainland’s move of "rather sacrificing a few stones, but not the game”, focuses on the determination behind the give-and-take in the big picture of the whole China; Tsai Ing-wen, who claims to be a player in this Go chess game, must understand.

The US, China and Taiwan have been playing this Go chess game for forty years; the situation has overturned, but Taiwan from the very beginning has not been a party to move freely. To safeguard the nation’s sovereignty and dignity, it should do its best in opting for the good and avoiding the evil, and not utilizing the pretext of defending to engage in provocations in order to make partisan gains. In this electoral campaign, Green camp elements scramble to play the role of Boxers, fighting to win votes of fury and dissatisfaction in the deteriorated cross-Strait relations; would they have any thought to find a peace valve for the loss of dialogue and interchanges in future cross-Strait relations? For this kind of happy-go-lucky witch hunt to punish dissidents using questions of livelihood, forcing people to show their loyalty, how could they not be afraid that it could evolve into "today’s Hong Kong, tomorrow’s Taiwan" and march on the path of destruction in the name of democracy?

In facing US-China conflicts, the Tsai government is relying on external forces and system of laws to structure cross-Strait relations of hostility, and using populist approaches and authoritarian politics to control people's identity. From opening doors to closing them in cross-Strait relations, from democracy to dictatorship in politics, why has history made such twists and turns, both sides have to self-reflect, and strive to reconstruct the underpinning conditions for peaceful coexistence, so as to overcome the crisis of continuously expanding ruptures.

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