Rather comical to watch KMT candidates bend over backwards for China…and then hop up and down angrily while denouncing political rivals for "making them wear the red hat".
Here’s a little tip fellas: Those crimson chapeaus – you donned ’em all by yourselves. So you look pretty ridiculous turning around now and complaining that independence supporters are the ones who somehow forced you to put ’em on.
A good example of what I’m talking about is KMT vice-presidential candidate Vincent Siew’s indignation that his "cross-strait" common market proposal is being mis-characterized as a "One China" common market.
You’re making me wear the red hat, protested Siew. I never, ever, EVER said I wanted a "One China" common market! What I want is a "cross-strait" common market. Those are two COMPLETELY different animals. And anyways, how DARE you question my patriotism?
All the semantic hair-splitting came to an end a few days later, when Siew was forced to sheepishly admit that yes, he had indeed called for the establishment of a "Greater China" market during a speech in 2005. Sticking to his guns though, Siew continued to defend the general idea:
"China is the reason behind Taiwan’s marginalization in the international economic market. The cross-strait common market would maximize opportunities and minimize the threat," [Siew] said. [emphasis added]
Jaws should drop when people hear that, because Siew casually acknowledges here that China is currently engaged in low-intensity economic warfare against Taiwan. And that Taiwan should REWARD Beijing for doing so!
(For those unaware of the situation, Taiwan has been attempting to sign free-trade deals with other countries for a few years now. Behind the scenes however, Beijing wrenches arms out of their sockets to prevent those negotiations from ever going anywhere.)
Just what is Vincent Siew’s response to this decidedly unfriendly behavior? Does he breathe a single word of condemnation about it? Or, better still, as a candidate for the vice-presidency, does he offer any practical suggestions as to how Taiwan can break through the economic isolation brought on by China’s unrelenting hostility?
Nope. Siew’s panacea is, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. When China walks all over Taiwan, the proper response isn’t complaint or resistance. No, no – China must instead be EMBRACED for its acts of malice. Battered wife syndrome isn’t a vice or some kind of pitiful disease – it’s actually a species of virtue. Siew reasons that if Taiwan goes to Beijing on its knees and begs for a small place in the Greater China Co-Prosperity Sphere, the Communist Party of China will finally know once and for all just how much the Taiwanese truly love them. And Beijing shall henceforth be moved towards charitable benevolence.
Such child-like faith in the universality of human kindness. Perhaps instead of complaining about that red hat of his, Siew should consider pulling it from over his eyes.
Postscript: A terrific editorial on the subject from Wednesday’s Taiwan News. One particular paragraph deals with the point I attempted to make:
Ma’s claims that his future government would ban PRC produce and workers also fly in the face of the reciprocal nature of trade and economic pacts and rest entirely on Beijing’s "goodwill" to allow Taiwan to erect barriers against PRC dumping of "black heart" defective and dangerous foods and products.
Difficult to see how Taiwan could count on China’s goodwill in such an arrangement, given that Beijing’s ILL-WILL is the explicitly-stated reason this proposal was mooted in the first place!