The capital of Taiwan and the most populated city in China managed to get together and hold a joint forum. In itself not a historic achievement, considering the forum took place before.
Even last year, after independent Ko Wen-je had been elected and taken office as mayor of Taipei, the forum went ahead, despite Chinese doubts about the new mayor’s “ideological tendencies.”
It would sound more than normal that after taking place in Shanghai last year, the forum moved back to Taipei this year, yet it was still regarded as no mean achievement.
The main reason for that is that it was the first and most high-level cross-straits event to take place in Taiwan since Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen was elected president last January 16 and took office with her administration on May 20.
However, China’s attitude became clear after it became clear who would represent Shanghai at the event. Not Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong, as should have been the case, but Sha Hailin, a man barely known to the public in Taiwan and bearing the bombastic title of director of the Shanghai Municipal Committee’s United Front Work Department.
“United Front work,” a formula unique to China, really translates into internationally intelligible English as one word, propaganda. Its function is to make its opponents, or more particularly the people of Taiwan, believe that they would be much better off if they accepted the claims of sovereignty and supremacy made by the Beijing-based Communist Party leaders.
While it is easy to dismiss such claims as fantasy and hallucinations, China’s advances in economic reforms and living standards have made its work much easier. While the vast majority of Taiwanese citizens can see through the fog of politically motivated promises, a hardened minority does believe that pairing up with the rising might of China would benefit Taiwan.
Sha lived up to the reputation of his job by not merely emphasizing what the two cities could do together, but by also venturing into national-level policies and raking up the “One China Principle” and the “1992 Consensus.”
Beijing has been miffed that since taking office in May, Tsai has failed to mention the latter, which was touted by her predecessor, President Ma Ying-jeou, as the reason he was able to realize a rapid rapprochement with China and sign a series of cross-straits economic and trade accords.
The “One China Principle” is a direct slap in the face for Taiwan, since it means that the democratic island forms part of a Greater China ruled by the communists. The “1992 Consensus” is the long-held fiction that China agreed to a KMT government formula that even though there was one China, both sides could have their own separate interpretation.
The existence of such a consensus has been repeatedly denied, not just by Tsai’s DPP, but also by former President Lee Teng-hui, who was head of state when the Hong Kong negotiations took place which allegedly produced the accord.
In addition, China always mentions the “One China” part of the supposed consensus, but never the second part about Taiwan being allowed its own interpretation.
Sha’s mention of the old subjects betrays a mindset frozen in time and a refusal to accept that Taiwan has changed, not just since 1992, but also over the past few years.
Successive DPP victories in the local elections in November 2014, and in the legislative and presidential elections in January this year show that the basis for Taiwan-China relations has shifted.
China should do well to remember that those DPP victories are not just due to the faltering economy or to previous President Ma Ying-jeou’s alleged “bumbling,” but also to China’s own attitude problems when it comes to Taiwan.
While Tsai has emphasized the need for a status quo and for positive contacts between Taiwan and China, the communist government has continued on its course of arrogance and petty harassment.
The latter was most recently in evidence with the rather bizarre move to have Hong Kong cancel a visa it had already given to former Kuomintang spokesman Yang Wei-chung. The man has been expelled from the opposition party for his frequent public criticisms, but it was reportedly his decision to accept a spot on the new government committee to investigate the allegedly ill-gotten assets of the KMT which upset Beijing.
As long as China continues to indulge in such attempts at underlining its claims of sovereignty and its rejection of the island’s democratically elected government, public opinion in Taiwan will not listen to the talk of brotherly bonds and common destiny by officials like Sha.