By Fu Quan
10-02-2021
Tsai Ing-wen chaired a high-level meeting of the “National Security” Council yesterday. After the meeting, she held a press conference to explain in person the four conclusions made during the meeting on Taiwan, the United States, the cross-Straits relations and the epidemic situation, but did not accept questions from the media.
The timing of this “national security” high-level meeting is quite special. One was on the eve of the Lunar New Year, and the other was half a month after the inauguration of new U.S. President Joe Biden.
High-level “national security” meetings on the eve of the Lunar New Year were rare in the past. In the past, “national security” high-level meetings were mostly aimed at some emergencies related to “national security” issues to discuss, study and make countermeasures. This meeting was held before the Lunar New Year without any unexpected circumstances. It was clearly intended to use the “warm” atmosphere of the Lunar New Year to defuse the jam it was facing in Taiwan-U.S. relations and the situation across the Taiwan Strait after Trump lost the election and Biden took office, as well as to make herself in a jam in internal affairs.
Of course, as a Chinese region, Taiwan is closely related to the mainland in terms of geography, blood, culture and customs. That’s why Tsai Ing-wen used the word “Chinese” very rarely at the beginning of her press conference to express her New Year greetings, and added, “I wish the people on the other side of the Taiwan Straits peace and stability in the New Year.” But since then claimed that “tomorrow is the Chinese lunar New Year holiday, but the” national security “cannot rest, so we held a special national security “high-level meeting” in the New Year’s Eve.” But it also makes people vaguely feel the “tension” atmosphere, thus immediately recalled the story of “when the fox preaches, beware your geese”.
In fact, according to Ms Tsai says, “national security” high-level meeting to discuss the four issues, the first is the relationship with America, it is of course based on Tsai Ing-wen “pro-american” of basic decisions positioning, Taiwan’s relations with America in the relations across the Taiwan straits, and rely on the United States beholden to fight the habit of mainland China mind-set. But to a certain extent, it reflects the anxiety of the Taiwan authorities for the defeat of their favorite Trump who had been highly touted, and their misgiving of the election and inauguration of Biden who had been wantonly “smeared”. So the “national security” high-level meeting was “expanded” to include Hsiao Mei-Chin, the Taiwan’s representative to the United States, in addition to the standard “foreign minister”, Joseph Wu. Therefore, in the meeting, it is inevitable that the Biden administration’s attitude towards the US-China relations, as well as the basic policy across the Taiwan Strait will be deeply analyzed, and specific countermeasures will be made.
But in order to avoid panic, and Tsai Ing-wen, in the introduction meeting to make a conclusion, lists many favorable appearance, but a not signs of Taiwan’s relations with America are quietly changing, especially Biden team again to follow the “one China policy”, hark back to The Three Joint Communiques, Biden himself is stated not like Trump’s confrontation with China, the state department spokesman call Tsai Ing-wen as a “Taiwan’s democratically elected representatives
“, to avoid previously regarded as “political entities” or even “country”.
Admittedly, the Biden team cannot completely abandon Trump’s tough policy on China, especially the Taiwan Strait, because of the “Trumpism” and populism in the United States, but in fact, it has gradually moved toward the direction of the traditional fuzzy line of the United States, which is extremely unfavorable to the Tsai Ing-wen administration. The traditional line is that Tsai must return to her original campaign promise to the United States to “follow the constitutional system of the Republic of China.” The “constitutional system of the Republic of China” means “one China”. Both Taiwan and the mainland China are part of China. However, Tsai Ing-wen’s current authorities, under the banner of “the Republic of China”, are selling “Taiwan independence” goods, separating Taiwan from the mainland China, which is different from Biden’s Taiwan Strait positioning in principle. Therefore, we can no longer “show strength” to the mainland China as trump did when he was in office. Without the support of the United States, Tsai Ing-wen could only use “New Year greetings” for the first time to cover up her softening tone.
Therefore, the second point of the four-point conclusion of the “national security” high-level meeting is cross-Straits relations. In keeping with the lack of confidence in Taiwan-U.S. relations, she also softened her tone, saying that he expects people across the Straits to gradually return to normal and orderly exchanges, and that he is willing to work together to promote meaningful dialogue in accordance with the principle of reciprocal dignity. However, Tsai Ing-wen made a rare use of the word “China” and dropped the term “mainland China”, which she had often used before, showing that she still adheres to the “special two-state theory”. Because she is reading according to the prepared reading articles to read, and it should be a “national security” staff who prepared it in advance, and has set up a “national security” in “endorsement” high-level meeting, so the “little tricks”, it is worth noting that, because this is the so-called the “good faith” was written off, but also exposes its prototype, is the platform of “Taiwan independence”, still insist on the democratic progressive party (DPP) developed for tsai ing-wen, her”special cross-strait policy”, and “Taiwan, China, one country on each side” proposed by Chen Shui-bian, with the result that her “pursuit of peace” is “two-sided approach”.
In fact, Tsai Ing-wen, in the words, although on the surface the tone had turn soft, but it hides conspiracy, with “cross-strait peace, not unilaterally in Taiwan, the important key is in the hands of China”, she shifted responsibility for the current tension across the Taiwan strait to mainland China without any reflection on her refusal to recognize the “1992 consensus”. This triggered a high level of vigilance on the other side, as the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council retaliated, they sent the director of the News Ma Xao-guang rather than daily Spokeswoman Zhu feng-lian to to give a public speech. In addition to bluntly denounced the DPP authorities’ refusal to recognize the “1992 Consensus” and linked external forces to continuously seek “independence” provocations. In addition to causing tension and confrontation in cross-strait relations, it also deliberately goes back to the eight years before the DPP authorities came to power. Therefore, if the DPP authorities have the slightest sincerity, they should immediately give up their position on “Taiwan independence”, stop their activities for “independence” and return to the common political foundation of the“1992 Consensus”.
Since, as Ms Tsai Ing-wen said, the Lunar New Year holiday begins today, two of the four conclusions reached at the summit were related to the outbreak. The third point is vaccine. As an island economic region, Taiwan is the key to opening up to the outside world. Therefore, the element of international free flow of personnel is extremely important, which confirms the high degree of hunger for vaccines in Taiwan. However, the Taiwan authorities have not been listed as a priority supplier for the international distribution platform due to their own limitations, such as the extent of the epidemic and their financial capacity. Thus, until yesterday, only more than 200,000 doses have been purchased. This is far from sufficient for a population of 23 million, especially in Taiwan, where there are more than one million frontline and emergency personnel, and could lead to panic and discontent. Therefore, vaccine procurement was elevated to the level of “national security” and included in the “national security” high-level meeting. Tsai Ing-wen also urged people not to worry, but in the words “I can’t tell you the details at the moment”, she revealed that the Taiwan authorities are still unsure about getting more vaccines.
In fact, Tsai Ing-wen’s anxiety is more than just a few topics discussed at the “national security” high-level meeting? The affairs of the island were enough to worry about. This is not only the struggle for power among the various factions of the DPP during the “post-Cai” period, but also the fierce struggle in the DPP in the past few days due to the contradiction in the handling of the “ractopamine pork’s vote”. Outside the party, the Kuomintang and other parties launched “anti-ractopamine pork referendum” and a series of recall cases; Due to the DPP administration’s “tailgating” to Trump, it failed to get entry vouchers for free trade negotiations with the United States, including vaccines made in the United States. The Taiwan people, who had taken an understanding attitude because they hoped to “take advantage of a small loss” and strive to open up international space, also became dissatisfied. This is very bad for the DPP authorities. If it continues to ferment, it will jeopardize its authority. So the very fact that a high-level “national security” meeting was held ahead of the Lunar New Year reflected the danger that the DPP administration was in.
Translation by William Fei Zhongping
Source:
Journal San Wa Ou, Tsai Ing-Wen still clings to the “two-state theory” (http://www.waou.com.mo/news_b/shownews.php?lang=cn&id=52566)