Without the “China Factor”, How Will the KMT Rise Again?

Without the “China Factor”, How Will the KMT Rise Again? 
China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC)
A Translation 
May 26, 2016 

Executive Summary:  The KMT remains the key. It must not remain idle while individuals fight its battles. It must provide checks and balances against the ruling DPP. It must not start strong only to end weak. It must gather its forces, unify the party, allies, and the public, and together oppose the DPP's agenda of Sinophobia. It must seek out people of goodwill from both sides, and together promote peaceful cross-Strait relations.

Full Text Below:

Since January 16, virtually all attention has been focused on the DPP. Only then President Ma Ying-jeou, who visited numerous offshore islands, and still active then premier Chang San-cheng, attracted media attention. In March the KMT was busy with its party chairmanship election. Since then it has done almost nothing of note. It has gradually vanished from the media spotlight. It even failed to comment on President Tsai's inaugural address, on Premier Lin Chuan's abrupt cancellation of revisions to school texts, and the dropping of indictments against Sunflower Student Movement rioters. The KMT did not see fit to comment on any of these major issues. Random individuals spoke out. Otherwise, the KMT was virtually invisible.

The KMT remains the second largest political party on Taiwan. With 35 seats in the Legislative Yuan, it should be checking and balancing the ruling DPP. This is especially true since the Kuomintang has major differences with the DPP over matters of history, national identity, and cross-Strait relations. Unless the KMT highlights its own values, and defends its own beliefs, it will not be able to check and balance the ruling DPP. It will not be able to provide Taiwan with guidance, and will probably be forgotten.

In President Tsai's inaugural address, she openly declared her intention to make cross-Strait relations a regional and global issue. She hopes that membership in the TPP and RCEP will enable her to promote her New Southern Strategy, and “bid farewell to previous over-dependence on a single market”. The single market she referred to was of course the Mainland market. President Tsai also echoed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "values ​​diplomacy" rhetoric. She said the DPP wants to promote an "alliance of values". The allies she has in mind are of course the United States and Japan. The target of the alliance is of course the Beijing government. This military confrontation with the Mainland, along with economic alienation from the Mainland, constitutes President Tsai's foreign policy and strategic thinking for the next four years.

Consider the Mainland perception. President Tsai would "reach a consensus and adopt a unified stance against outsiders". By “outsiders” she means of course the Mainland. For the new government, the Mainland is a hostile entity, but one that must be dealt with. Therefore she will deal with it last. It is the “other” that must be dealt with through the "alliance of values". For President Tsai, "the two sides of the Strait are one family” has no appeal. For her, cross-Strait relations is an “adversarial relationship between two enemies”.

President Tsai's strategic blueprint is guaranteed to ring disaster down on Taiwan's head. This is why the KMT remains indispensable. The KMT must expose the DPP's fallacies. It must have the courage to criticize them. The KMT, aka Chinese Nationalist Party, must understand that if it loses its status as a voice for "China", it will lose its soul and its very reason for being. It will become nothing more than a “me too” edition of the DPP. If however, the Chinese Nationalist Party is willing to reinvest the term "Chinese" with meaning, it can find a renewed theoretical basis to establish peaceful relations with the Mainland. It can strengthen Taiwan and influence the Mainland.

The KMT must insist that Taiwan is a pluralistic society with Chinese culture at its core, and not, as the DPP insists, a pluralistic society without any core culture. The Constitution of the Republic of China is a constitution that does not permit separatism. The new government has no right to propose Taiwan independence. It has a duty to ensure that the nation remains whole. Cross-Strait relations are not foreign relations. They are relations between two governments within China that are in a state of civil war. The 1992 Consensus is the political foundation for current cross-Strait exchanges. The KMT must demand that the new government continue to uphold these principles. It must tell the people that  Taiwan cannot participate in regional economic organizations unless it does so in concert with the Mainland. The KMT must loudly proclaim that legally the civil war is not over. It must tell the DPP that the more successful its campaign of de-Sinicization, the more people on the two sides are divided, then the more elusive cross-Strait peace will become, and the greater the possibility of military conflict.

During the Mainland's 30 years of reform and opening, Taiwan made significant contributions to its economic development. Taiwan also preserved traditional Chinese culture. These earned it the respect of the vast majority of people on the Mainland. The DPP is eager to sever all cultural and economic links with the Mainland. As opposition party, the KMT must continue to bear a heavy burden. Pessimistically speaking, it must not allow the Mainland to lose all hope of peaceful reunification. Optimistically speaking, it must let the Mainland feel that Taiwan can play an important part in the revitalization of the Chinese nation. Only then can Taiwan win hearts and minds on the Mainland. Only then, can it they win their respect.

There is no denying that following Taiwan's democratization, the public on Taiwan and the Mainland have become alienated from each other. In recent years Mainland China's power has increased. The cross-Strait balance of power has changed, militarily and economically. Foreign nations have quickly tilted toward the Mainland. The ability of the United States to contain the Mainland is clearly waning. The Mainland made unilateral concessions to Taiwan. But eight years of effort had little effect. Instead they put the DPP in office. Obviously the Mainland must rethink its Taiwan policy. It must not assume that small favors granted unilaterally will change Taiwan. It must think instead of the Mainland and Taiwan “merging into one”.

The KMT remains the key. It must not remain idle while individuals fight its battles. It must provide checks and balances against the ruling DPP. It must not start strong only to end weak. It must gather its forces, unify the party, allies, and the public, and together oppose the DPP's agenda of Sinophobia. It must seek out people of goodwill from both sides, and together promote peaceful cross-Strait relations.

失去中國元素國民黨如何再起
2016年05月26日 中國時報

從1月16日開始，所有鎂光燈幾乎都聚焦在民進黨身上，只剩下勤跑離島的前總統馬英九、九局半仍積極任事的前行政院長張善政，勉強抓到一些新聞。國民黨自3月間忙完黨主席選舉後，幾乎沒有任何讓人眼睛一亮的作為，就慢慢從媒體消音了。甚至蔡總統的就職演說、林全內閣上任立刻宣布廢除課綱微調，撤銷對太陽花學運者的告訴，這些重大事件都沒有看到國民黨的立場宣示，僅少數零星的火力回擊，國民黨似乎隱形了。

國民黨畢竟還是第二大政黨，在立法院擁有35席，應該發揮監督與制衡的功能。特別是國民黨在史觀、國家定位與兩岸關係上與民進黨有著重大的歧異，如果國民黨不能凸顯自己的價值、捍衛自己的信仰，就無法扮演監督與制衡的角色，不能為台灣指引方向，國民黨極可能永遠被人民遺忘。

蔡總統520就職演說，明確將兩岸關係優先性置於區域與全球之後，希望透過TPP、RCEP的參與及新南向政策的推動，「告別以往過於依賴單一市場的現象」，這個單一市場指的是對岸。蔡總統也複誦了日本首相安倍晉三的「價值觀外交」用語，強調民進黨要推動「價值同盟」，其盟友自然是美、日等國，要對付的對象就是北京政府。這種在安全上與大陸對立、在經濟上與大陸疏離的策略，是蔡總統未來4年的對外戰略思維。

在對大陸的認知上，蔡總統宣稱會「凝聚共識，形成一致對外的立場」。這個「對外」，毫無疑問，指的是中國大陸。對新政府而言，大陸是個不友善，但不得不相處，因而要將其放在最後順序，並需透過「價值同盟」與其對抗的「他者」。對於蔡總統而言，「兩岸一家親」不是她的思維，「有敵意的異己」才是兩岸關係的寫照。

蔡總統的戰略藍圖注定會給台灣帶來災難，而這正是國民黨存在的必要。國民黨必須要有智慧指出民進黨邏輯的謬誤，並勇於批判。中國國民黨必須了解，如果失去「中國」這個話語權，等於失去靈魂與丟棄論述，將來只會是個扈從民進黨的尾巴政黨，如果能將「中國」這兩個字賦予豐富的內涵，不僅可以讓國民黨找到再起的理論基礎，與大陸建立和平關係，還可以壯大台灣，影響大陸。

國民黨必須堅持台灣是一個以中華文化為核心的多元文化社會，而不是如民進黨所說，是沒有核心文化的多元社會；《中華民國憲法》是不容許分裂的憲法，新政府沒有權利主張台獨，僅有確保國家不容許分裂的義務；兩岸關係不是外國關係，而是「整個中國」因內戰而形成的兩個分治政府間的關係；九二共識的內涵是目前兩岸事務性交流的政治基礎，國民黨必須要求、監督新政府延續。國民黨必須告訴人民，沒有與大陸的連結，台灣不可能進入區域經濟的結構，更要大聲說出，兩岸的法理內戰沒有結束，民進黨的去中國化愈成功，兩岸人民認同愈分歧，兩岸和平就愈渺茫，衝突的可能就愈大。

大陸改革開放後的30年間，台灣曾對大陸經濟發展做出極大的貢獻，台灣在中華文化方面的維護與堅持，也得到絕大多數大陸民眾的尊重。在民進黨亟欲切割與大陸文化、經濟連結的時候，國民黨一定要接續起這個重擔。從消極面來說，不要讓大陸對台灣完全失去了統的想像空間；積極面來說，讓大陸感覺到，台灣可以在中華民族的振興過程扮演合作推動的重要角色。只有如此，台灣才能得到大陸的民心，也才會得到尊重。

但不容否認，台灣民主化後，台灣社會與大陸的「心靈距離」漸行漸遠，近年大陸綜合國力強勢崛起，不僅兩岸軍力、經濟力、國際力對比快速向大陸傾斜，美國牽制中國的實力明顯衰退，大陸官方更單向對台「讓利」，但8年的努力未見其功，反而造成民進黨執政的變局，顯然大陸對台政策必須從更深層次重新思考，不能企圖用單向思維、片面作為甚至小恩小惠改變台灣，而要從「融一」的角度著手。

關鍵仍在國民黨，要擺脫單兵作戰、零星炮火、有始無繼的散沙式監督，要調和整體戰力，更要結合黨員、黨友及社會「反反中」、企求兩岸和好的所有力量，共同推動兩岸關係和平發展。