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In his National Day Rally speech, Prime Minister Lee talked
about the worrying trends emerging from Taiwan's cross-strait
relations with China.
The upcoming Legislative Election in Taiwan has seen the
major political parties diverting their attention away from
Taiwan's international relations, and future.
Instead, Taiwan's Pan-Green and Pan-Blue parties are more
pre-occupied with domestic issues.
To what extent is this pre-occupation with domestic politics
affecting the way Taiwanese view cross-strait relations?
Melanie Yip put this question to Associate Professor Bo Zhi-Yue
(BZY) from the Saint John Fisher College in Rochester, New
York.
BZY: The fact that both the Pan-Green and Pan-Blue parties
are more pre-occupied with domestic issues than managing Taiwan's
relations with China is due to the fact that these two blocs
of political parties are equal in force, and the stakes in
winning are very high. Both sides are trying very carefully
to gain votes, so they are more of less restricted by the
rules of democracy, that is, both parties are trying to win
more votes. To add to that, Chen Shui-Bien won the presidential
election by a very small margin. This indicates that it is
very critical to be careful, and to think more about domestic
issues that about anything else.
The Taiwanese media cover almost exclusively domestic news,
with little or no reporting on the international situation.
Is that restricting people in Taiwan from forming more fair
and balanced views on Taiwan's relations with China?
BZY: Yes, I think that is an accurate description in Taiwan,
because the political parties are competing with each other
for votes, and that has become a more important issue in Taiwan,
and the media are competing with other for news. They see
domestic news as more interesting and exciting. They tend
to look inward, and a lot of international issues are covered
from the perspective of Taiwan, than to try to see the issue
more objectively.
And we also see an interesting trend where we have more people
in Taiwan going back to, or speaking the Taiwanese dialect,
otherwise known as the "hollow whey". So why are
more people in Taiwan speaking or switching to speaking the
Taiwanese dialect?
BZY: There are two points here. Number one, about 75% of
people who live in Taiwan are migrants from the Fujian province
(in China). That's why they speak in this particular form
of dialect, so it is not surprising. The fact that more and
more people are speaking this dialect is a reflection of Taiwan's
identity. Some political leaders try to take an advantage
of this Taiwanese identity to get more votes. They are promoting
this sense of "Taiwan First". So, in a sense, Taiwan's
identity is more of a political card played by some political
leaders. This is not reality because it is educated, mobilized
and manipulated by political parties and political leaders.
But many Taiwanese believe that China will not use force
on Taiwan even if it moves towards independence. Are the people
in Taiwan aware of the severity of the cross-strait issue
with China?
BZY: A lot of people in Taiwan think, "actually, we
are already independent, so what do you mean by a move towards
independence." In a sense, they are not fully aware of
the differences between the assessment of their status, and
mainland China's assessment of Taiwan's movement towards independence.
I think they tend to underestimate the severity of cross-strait
relations.
How will Singapore and the international community's support
of the "One-China' policy benefit regional stability
in the long term?
BZY: I think that if Singapore and the other countries in
the international community consistently support the "One-China"
policy, that will reduce the potential danger of waging a
war across the Taiwan Straits. Taiwanese are pre-occupied
with their domestic issues, they are not able to look at their
own situation more objectively. So, if the Taiwanese can be
reminded of their own danger, by the show of support for the
"One-China" policy, I think Taiwan will eventually
get the message.
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