Mayor Ko’s Head May Get Through, But Chairman Ko’s Body May Not

Mayor Ko’s Head May Get Through, But Chairman Ko’s Body May Not

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

August 21, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je claims to be deep Green; however, he harbors no hostility toward the Mainland, being willing to engage in exchanges with the Mainland based on the concept of cultural identity. Since he was first elected mayor of Taipei City, he has generously inherited the "Twin Cities Forum" established during his predecessor Mayor Hao Lung-pin’s term, hoping to maintain interchanges with the Mainland to prove that he is capable of handling cross-Strait relations.

On the foundation of "the two sides of the Strait are like family", Ko Wen-je uses a pragmatic attitude to cooperate with the Mainland, jointly handling the divergences between them, having slowly developed a certain degree of mutual trust with Beijing. The Twin Cities Forum has remained to date, and behind the success is the result of switching on a green light for him to pragmatically communicate with the Mainland.

Nevertheless, the Mainland’s acceptance of Mayor Ko Wen-je is not unconditional, being founded on two terms. First, Ko Wen-je is not a member of the DPP, not bound by the Taiwan independence party platform. Second, a mayor is not a national leader; "the two sides of the Strait are like family" is an adequate political foundation for exchanges at the local level. In other words, the Mainland has not switched on a green light all the way for Ko Wen-je; once it enters the presidential level, stopping at "the two sides of the Strait are like family", but refusing to accept the 1992 Consensus, the Mainland may not be able to accept it.

Ko Wen-je divides "China" into three concepts: cultural China, economic China and political China, attempting to provide a turn-around that he does not accept "Taiwanese are Chinese." However, Ko Wen-je's camouflage, nevertheless, has revealed the crucial reason for the cross-Strait political divergences in the last three decades, which have even deteriorated. The crucial reason is that in a democratic presidential election, the goal is to maximize the vote, being accustomed offering policies that are fuzzy but pleasing to the majority, asking only for "getting the head through and the body will follow." Ko Wen-je's "theory of three Chinas" is a kind of fuzzy strategy based on "let the head get through and the body will follow"; under the Mainland's political system, this short-term strategy is quite difficult to erect long-term trust. Once Mayor Ko has become Chairman Ko, and even once becoming President Ko in the future, if there is no political linkage between the "family” in the “two sides of the Strait are like family", Beijing will not switch on a green light.

[Translator’s note: Taipei City Mayor founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on August 6^th and was elected the new party's chairman on the same day. Mentions of Chairman Ko in the editorial refer to TTP Chairman.] 

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