Tour Bus Fire: Dangerous Escalation in People to People Enmity

Tour Bus Fire: Dangerous Escalation in People to People Enmity
United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC) 
A Translation 
July 21, 2016 

Executive Summary: People to people cross-Strait relations have recently taken a serious nose dive. It was in this poisoned atmosphere, that the tour bus fire incident occurred. Twenty-four tourists from Liaoning Province were burned to death when a tour bus on Taiwan ran off the road. The incident was both shocking and tragic.

Full Text Below:

People to people cross-Strait relations have recently taken a serious nose dive. It was in this poisoned atmosphere, that the tour bus fire incident occurred. Twenty-four tourists from Liaoning Province were burned to death when a tour bus on Taiwan ran off the road. The incident was both shocking and tragic.

Since President Tsai Ing-wen took office, cross-Strait relations have chilled. The discord began with verbal exchanges between officials from the two sides, and gradually spilled over into the private sector. Consider two recent examples. Taiwan actor Leon Dai was allegedly replaced by a movie director because he was an advocate of Taiwan independence. Dai issued a clarification, but that merely provoked more people from the two sides to lash out at each other. Soon afterwards a homemade video appeared, named "A Taiwan without Mainland tourists is much more serene”. Tsai Ing-wen's "Thinking Taiwan" website praised it. The undisguised bigotry of the video insulted members of the public on the Mainland. In response, Mainlanders lashed back.

Nor was this all. The “Mainland July 20 clamp down on Mainland tourists to Taiwan” turned out to be an unfounded rumor. Nevertheless Taiwan fell off the Mainland list of “Ten Hot Spots” for outbound summer tourism. Public anger on the Mainland has reached the boiling point. Following the tour bus fire, some Mainlanders went online and hinted at "premeditated murder". If the Tsai regime fails to deal with this matter, if it fails to demand that the public on Taiwan exercise restraint, cross-Strait relations may deteriorate or even spin completely out of control.

These developments reveal two qualitative changes. First, cross-Strait official alienation has spread to the private sector, and led to mutual recriminations and hostility. If the situation is allowed to spread, Taiwan's democracy, freedom, and cultural advantages over the Mainland, the very traits that won hearts and minds on the Mainland, will be lost overnight. Second, the green camp's blind hatred of “China”, i.e., the Mainland, is now provoking anti-Taiwan sentiment among ordinary people on the other side. This sentiment is bound to intensity because the DPP regime refuses to recognize the 1992 Consensus.

The worsening of cross-Strait relations has spread from officialdom to the general public. Anti-Mainland sentiment on this side, has provoked anti-Taiwan sentiment on the other side. The two governments must pay attention to this alarming phenomenon. Once nationalist sentiment erupts, damage control may be futile. In the past, the opposition DPP's anti-Mainland strategy had no apparent drawbacks. Back then it served merely to hobble the KMT and Taiwan's economic progress. It had no significant impact on the CCP. It os a blind spot in green camp thinking. Taiwan must differentiate between anti-Communist and anti-Mainland sentiment. Anti-Mainland policy must seek support from the Mainland public. Conflating the two is extremely unwise.

Anti-Mainland sentiment will inevitably provoke a reaction. This is to be expected. Therefore anti-Taiwan sentiments from the Mainland are perfectly natural. There is nothing odd about them. Consider the Leon Dai incident for example. From Taiwan's perspective, one can condemn the Chinese Communist regime's intolerance as the cause from behind the scenes. But closer examination shows the DPP treating Mainland students worse than it treats foreign students. Is this consistent with freedom and equality? Worse still, Mainland students who come to Taiwan are among those most sympathetic to Taiwan. Yet we have long ignored their rights and feelings. Any mistreatment Leon Dai might have endured on the Mainland, was a mirror image of Mainland student mistreatment endured on Taiwan. That much is undeniably true. When we point the finger at the CCP, we must ask ourselves, what ever happened to the DPP's claim that it is championing "universal values"?

Twenty-two years ago, the Qiandao Lake incident exploded. Twenty-four Taiwan tourists visiting the Mainland were robbed and murdered. The incident exerted a major impact on the Taiwan public, and diminished peoples' identification with the Mainland. The number of dead from the tour bus fire is exactly the same. This coincidence represents a major setback for cross-Strait relations. It must not to be taken lightly.

Here we would remind the Tsai regime of three points. First, in order to maintain the “divided but peaceful” status quo, we must win the hearts and mind of the public on the Mainland. Therefore, we cannot indulge in anti-Mainland rhetoric. Tsai Ing-wen in particular, must not to allow her "Thinking Taiwan” website to be an agent provocateur. Second, cross-Strait relations must be mended. President Tsai refuses to even mention the 1992 Consensus. But the least she can do is demonstrate goodwill on other issues. She can appeal to the public to control hate speech. She can relax the constraints on Mainland students. Third, the tour bus fire tragedy revealed our own poor oversight of the transportation and tourism industries, and turned it into an international incident. The problem must be addressed in order to show our respect for human life. If done properly, it may restore much of Taiwan's lost lustre.

從火燒車警惕反台對反中的升溫
2016-07-21 聯合報

最近兩岸關係，在「民間」層次出現了一波惡化現象。就在這樣的氣氛中，發生了不幸的火燒車事件，廿四名遼寧旅客全數喪生在即將離台的路上，令人震驚與哀慟。

蔡英文總統上任後，兩岸關係轉冷，原只是雙方官方關係的齟齬與變調，竟逐漸往民間延燒。僅以最近的事例而言，日前發生戴立忍被指為台獨而遭導演換角事件，他發出澄清，更進而引發兩岸民眾你來我往的熱議和互批，情緒高漲。其後，台灣出現一系列民間自製的短片，誇稱「沒有陸客的台灣」反而多了寧靜；小英基金會旗下的「想想論壇」，則發表文章讚揚這些短片。由於其間赤裸裸的歧視情緒，刺痛大陸民眾的民族自尊，對岸網友一片討伐。

不唯如此，觀光業最近傳出陸方有「七二○全面封殺陸客赴台」的禁令，後雖證實為謠傳；但在大陸旅遊平台今夏出境旅遊「十大熱門景點」，向來熱門的台灣竟跌出榜外。可見，大陸民眾抵制台灣的情緒已在發酵；在遼寧陸客團發生措不及防的火燒車慘案後，對岸網友甚至有「預謀殺人」之說。由此看來，蔡政府若再不正視此事，並呼籲民眾節制，兩岸關係可能惡化至難以收拾的境地。

從這些發展，可以看出兩項質變：其一，兩岸官方的冷漠，已擴大為兩岸民間的互斥與敵視。若任由情勢延燒，台灣長期以來靠著民主、自由、文化而贏得大陸民眾好感的優勢，恐將一夕喪失。其二，綠營一味鼓吹的「反中」，如今已經召喚出對岸民眾的「反台」情緒；這點，勢將隨著民進黨政府拒絕承認九二共識而日益惡化。

兩岸關係的惡化從「官方」燒向「民間」，此岸的「反中」情緒點燃對岸的「反台」情緒，是兩岸政府必須共同警惕的現象。因為，一旦民族情緒越過了臨界點，傷害即難再彌補。過去，「反中」作為民進黨的在野戰略，看似無往不利；但觀察其作用點，其實只是有效牽制了國民黨，甚至羈絆了台灣的發展，而不是對中共發揮了打擊效果。這是綠營反中的盲點：對台灣而言，本來「反共」和「反中」之間應有所區別，但「反中」策略遭到濫用之後，原應「爭取大陸民間支持」的目標即被模糊，這一點都不明智。

「反中」勢必招致反作用力，這是可以預期的結果；也因此大陸民間的「反台」情緒隨之而來，自是毫不足奇。以戴立忍事件為例，從台灣的立場，我們固然可以譴責中共政權的不寬容是幕後始作俑者；但反求諸己，台灣在民進黨杯葛下，多年來一直以低於國際學生的標準對待陸生，這又體現了什麼自由平等？更何況，來台陸生其實是中國大陸對台灣最有好感的一群，我們卻始終漠視他們的權利和感受。有陸生稱，戴立忍在大陸的遭遇，其實正是陸生在台灣的遭遇的反射，此言不虛。當我們指控共產黨霸道，民進黨自詡的「普世價值」又在哪裡？

廿二年前的「千島湖事件」，有廿四名進香團台灣旅客遭到劫殺，嚴重衝擊人心，更造成台灣對中國認同的大倒退。這個死亡數字，和遼寧陸客團的火燒車死亡人數完全一樣，此一巧合，是否隱喻著兩岸關係一次反向的大倒退，切勿掉以輕心。

就此，我們要提醒蔡政府三點：第一，要維持兩岸「鬥而不破」的局面，必須爭取大陸民心，因此不可放任島內反中、仇中言論肆無忌憚地發酵，蔡英文尤不可讓「想想論壇」一再成為縱火現場。第二，在修補兩岸關係上，蔡總統縱然拒提九二共識，仍可設法在其他議題上釋放善意，諸如呼籲國內網友節制仇恨言論，乃至放寬陸生待遇等。第三，火燒車慘案暴露我交通及觀光管理的不善，已成國際事件，因此務必當成重要問題妥為善後，以示台灣對生命尊重的一視同仁。如果處理得當，或許多少能挽回台灣失去的形象。