Doesn’t the KMT brag about being Taiwan’s foreigner-savvy party?
A senior US official with knowledge of the meeting earlier this month between American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond Burghardt and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice presidential candidate Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) has described as false most of the statements attributed to Burghardt by Taiwanese media, especially that Washington favors the KMT over the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the presidential election.
But the official said Siew had talked about so-called "dirty tricks" that the KMT claims the DPP will use to influence the election. [emphasis added]
Exactly what "dirty tricks" did the KMT’s candidate for V.P. suggest Taiwan’s main independence party might pull before the election?
- Provoke clashes between KMT supporters and DPP members during 2-28 commemoration marches or 3-14 marches protesting China’s Anti-Secession Law. Major violence would, in theory, provide President Chen with justification to declare martial law and cancel the elections.
- Provoke a major international incident by detaining Chinese fishing boats somewhere in the Taiwan Strait. Another dastardly excuse for martial law.
- Stage an assassination attempt on its OWN presidential candidate so that a man more to President Chen’s liking could take his place. (In American terms, this would be somewhat akin to a Democratic Party front-runner asserting in all seriousness that President Bush plans to off Mike Huckabee in order to give Mitt Romney a better chance at the nomination!)
Talk about overplaying your hand. In making prediction #1, I suspect the KMT was angling for an American expression of concern regarding the marches – anything to reduce local turnout for marches that would otherwise benefit the independence parties. And who knows, if the KMT had limited themselves to that point, they might have gotten what they had wanted. But with forecast #3, they can forget it. About the only thing Siew can expect from America now is a nice shiny tinfoil hat for Christmas. If he’s LUCKY.
Up until now, it’s been reasonable to assume that Washington preferred a KMT administration to take over in ’08, protestations of neutrality notwithstanding. But surely this little conversation must be giving some people pause. Learning that your favorite candidate for vice-president happens to be a certifiable loony-tune has been known to do that on occasion.
Thought this was a great line from Wednesday’s Taipei Times:
As with other meetings, Burghardt was "almost completely in a listening mode" about concerns raised by Siew.
Almost completely in listening mode. I’ll BET. I mean, what’s the guy supposed to do, ARGUE with the man?
UPDATE (DEC 30/07): Interesting, this:
[The coast guard from the Taiwanese island of Kinmen] yesterday seized 12 Chinese intruding into Kinmen waters and arrested 30 Chinese fishermen.
Whoa. Sounds like the KMT might be on to something here.
No, no, just a second:
Kinmen Coast Guard official Weng Shin-chi said Chinese fishing boats often intrude into Kinmen waters to catch eel alevins (small eel) in the wintertime, which has compromised the security of Kinmen and its water lanes.
So Chinese fishermen often intrude into Taiwanese waters, and they’re often arrested for doing so. And just how long does the law say they can be held?
…according to the Statute Governing the Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, Taiwanese authorities have the right to detain Chinese criminal suspects for five days.
Five whole days. Tough to see an international incident blowing up over that kind of "provocation".
(Quotes from Coast guard captures Chinese boats, Taipei Times, Dec 23/07. Sorry, no link available.)