Can Chen Chu invite Bo Xi to Kaohsiung?

Can Chen Chu invite Bo Xi to Kaohsiung?
A Translation
United Daily News editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC)
April 7, 2010

During the 60s, author Pai Hsien-yung wrote "The Eternal Ying Hsueh-yian." The most he could do with his delicate brush strokes in Taipei, was to replicate fading memories of Shanghai. He could never have imagined that a half century later, a Shanghai mayor would pay an official visit to Taipei.

Pai Hsien-yung, Chang Ai-ling and other surviving emigres from Shanghai to Taipei brought with them remnants of Shanghai style to Taipei. But long separated by the "black water" of the Taiwan Strait, Shanghai is merely a nostalgic dream for a small number of people in Taipei. To natives of Taipei, Shanghai is a distant mirage. Just how prosperous and just how extravagant were the ten miles of foreign concessions? They have never witnessed for themselves. But yesterday Han Zheng flew across the Taiwan Strait. He became part of Taipei's history and cultural legacy. He made exchanges between the two cities far more real.

After several decades of development, both Taipei and Shanghai have sought to position themselves in the international marketplace. Both are located at the center of East Asia. Both are competing fiercely for the role of regional hub. But a wave of democratization on Taiwan led to a countercurrent of "be patient, avoid haste" thinking, and put Taiwan out of the running for over ten years. The role of regional economic hub was relinquished to Shanghai.

Taiwan forfeited its strategic political and economic goal of becoming the Asia-Pacific operations center. It focused all its energy on "amending the constitution and rectifying names." Politics degenerated into "ethnic" struggles, or to be more precise, communal group struggles. Shanghai meanwhile, shrugged off the shackles of dogmatic socialist ideology. It experimented with reform. It opened itself up as an SAR and re-embraced the world.

After Ma Ying-jeou took office, many of his policies, major and minor, have become targets of criticism. But his plan to restore Taipei's competitiveness was unquestionably correct. During his term as Taipei mayor, he favored direct links from Taipei's Songshan Airport to Shanghai. He wanted Shanghai and Taipei to be mentioned in the same breath. Once he was elected president, he pushed through direct links, and spoke of making Tokyo, Shanghai and Taipei three points of a Golden Triangle. He hoped to reestablish Taipei's competitiveness with Shanghai.

Han Zheng's visit to Taipei moves us one step closer to just such a possibility. Today's world involves both competition and cooperation. Such "coopetition" is not always between nations. Often it is between cities. If Taipei and Shanghai can reenact the scenario from "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," this might break "monolithic" cross-Strait relations into smaller and leaner "fragmentary" relations, enabling us to achieve more precisely targeted goals.

Consider the Five Cities elections at the end of the year. Five directly administered municipalities are undergoing replacement surgery for their political skeletons. If the new skeleton develops properly, these five metropolises will become five powerful engines of economic growth for the island. They will help the nation reverse its sinking fortunes and leap ahead. But this new skeleton requires all five metropolises to move in unision. Otherwise they will tear the body apart. This includes cross-Strait policy. As we have mentioned before, the DPP is solidly rooted in the Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Tainan regions. This is the result of successful indoctrination in Taiwan independence ideology and its Closed Door Policy. The DPP should use Greater Tainan's human resources and cultural assets, along with Greater Kaohsiung's resources as a seaport to offer a new urban vision. Otherwise, southern Taiwan will be unable to rise, and Taiwan will find it hard to escape the same fate.

Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Tainan will soon be upgraded. When Han Zheng makes his official visit to Taipei, that may be the right moment for Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Tainan to consider "Municipal Level Cross-Strait Policy." Take ECFA. Do Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Tainan really wish to continue haranguing their opponents for "pandering to [Mainland] China and selling out Taiwan?" Or do they wish to take advantage of the conditions created by ECFA to encourage investment?

Last year Chen Chu visited Shanghai for the sake of the World Games in Kaohsiung, and officially met with Han Zheng. Chen Chu was clearly seeking a political and economic solution for Kaohsiung's dilemma. But Han Zheng will end his visit in Taichung. He will meet with Jason Hu, He cannot visit Kaohsiung again and meet with Chen Chu. Internal Blue vs. Green political struggles on Taiwan are bounded by Cho Shui Creek. Han Zheng will not cross the Cho Shui Creek during his visit. The most fatal wounds have been inflicted upon Taiwan by cross-Strait policies that divide both the island and the Taiwan Strait.

Taipei has Yin Hsueh-yian or Ching Ta-ban. Tainan has the first Confucian temple on Taiwan. Merchantmen from Kaohsiung harbor have sailed as far up the Yangtze River as Chongqing. If Chen Chu would invite Chongqing Mayor Bo Xi to Kaohsiung as part of her campaign platform, perhaps it could change the cross-Straits thinking that has torn Taiwan apart at the Cho Shui Creek.

陳菊能否邀薄熙來訪問高雄？
【聯合報╱社論】
2010.04.07 03:02 am

作家白先勇在六○年代書寫「永遠的尹雪艷」時，大約只能用他細膩溫婉的筆觸描繪一幅台北複製的上海舊夢，卻絕不能想像半世紀後，一位上海市長正式訪問台北。

因為白先勇，因為張愛玲，以及因為許多自上海移居台北的遺老舊貴，而將片段的上海風情抖落在台北，可是隔著一帶黑水，上海畢竟只是台北一小群人士的舊夢與鄉愁；對於土生的台北人，上海卻是一個遙遠不真實的印象，十里洋場究竟如何繁華，租界裡頭到底怎麼奢靡，終究難以親睹。可是，這樣的一頁歷史，卻不失為韓正昨天跨越那一灣海峽飛到台北的文化底蘊與歷史襯裡，而使得兩個城市交往互動，有了更真實的憑託。

然而，台北與上海並稱卻是這十幾年的發展，兩個城市各自在國際的城市競爭中，尋求自我的定位，又因彼此都位處東亞的中心位置，搶奪區域樞紐的競爭更是激烈；但台灣終究因為內部的民主化風潮，橫生出「戒急用忍」的思維逆流，而在十餘年前退出競爭的行列，這個區域經濟樞紐的追逐賽事，台北最終拱手讓給了上海。

而在台灣放棄了亞太營運中心的政經戰略，而聚焦於修憲、正名，並變質成族群鬥爭等政治議程的同時，上海則掙脫了教條式社會主義意識形態的束縛，以改革開放的實驗特區之姿，重新擁抱世界。

無論馬英九執政後小大施政如何受到不同的責難，但對挽回台北競爭頹勢的理解與規畫卻無疑是正確的；他在台北市長任內即主張盡速三通，從松山機場直飛上海，將上海與台北聲息相通；待他當選總統主政後，實現直航，並提出東京、上海與台北構成黃金三角，希望重建台北與上海的競合關係。

韓正訪問台北向這樣的想像跨近了一步。如今世界的競合關係，往往並非以國家為號召，反而常以城市為名。故而，台北與上海若能上演一場「雙城奇謀」，這可以使「一整塊」的兩岸關係，切分成較小也更精實的「一小塊」，從而也就更可期待有較細緻的成就。

由此以觀年底的五都選舉，五個直轄市正是台灣一次砥筋礪骨的政經置換手術，這個架構若能發展得宜，正可為台灣裝置五個經濟強力引擎，讓國家反轉下沉氣旋，而快步躍進；但這個架構必須五都俱邁向同一方向，方不致相互撕裂抵銷，包括兩岸政策在內。我們曾經提出，民進黨在大高雄與大台南根基穩定，卻是台獨意識與鎖國政策的成功教育所致；民進黨應該以大台南的人文資產、與大高雄的港市資源，提出新的城市願景，否則南台灣無以昇華，台灣也無以脫困。

當韓正正式訪問台北之際，似乎也是即將升格的大高雄與大台南思考「城市兩岸政策」的時會。比如ＥＣＦＡ，大高雄及大台南究竟要繼續喊「傾中賣台」，還是善用ＥＣＦＡ所創造的條件趁機招商？

陳菊去年曾經為高雄世運拜訪上海，與韓正見面，可見陳菊確曾思考高雄的政經角色與出路；但韓正此次行程卻只到台中止步，與胡志強見面，而不能再到高雄與陳菊一敘。台灣因內部藍綠政爭而以濁水溪為界，如今韓正到訪也未跨過濁水溪。撕裂的台灣，撕裂的兩岸政策，這或許正是台灣最致命的困局。

台北固然有尹雪艷或金大班，台南也有全台首學的孔廟，高雄大港的商船更已可深入長江到達重慶市；如果陳菊能以邀請重慶的薄熙來市長造訪大高雄為競選政見，不知能否改變台灣被濁水溪撕裂的兩岸思維？