When a China Central Television (CCTV) host said “this man will come to ‘beg for peace’,” not only has it totally insulted Kuomintang (KMT), but also destroyed the “pursuing peace and stability” image KMT tried to create by attending Straits Forum. Although the team led by former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng has now been withdrawn from taking part in the forum to avoid the adverse political effect, rumor has it that Lin Rong-te, former acting chairman of the KMT, will be leading a team to take part but in the capacity of Taiwan businessman. If this is true, it might be hard to convince the public. Looking back at how the whole incident was panned out, KMT has mistaken a lot of steps, the mistakes which we should all learn from.

“Beg for peace” happened on the 10th of this month. As it was also on screen, the story has already been spread like wildfire on the next day; however, KMT only responded on the 12th, saying that it was unacceptable. It demanded CCTV apologize and considered to cancel attending the forum; but many KMT representatives did not have the patience to wait for the senior officials. They screamed, in any possible occasion/show, that it is not necessary to attend the forum; some even said if they are to attend, they should bring the national flag along as a stance, all in the hope to minimize the damage. They were also dumbfounded about the party’s decision to participate in the first place. This showed that the decision-making process within the party is not transparent and how big the voting pressure on the frontline representatives is.

In the past few days, CCTV has changed its tone and is now welcoming Wang’s team, but also tried to justify its “beg for peace” comment by saying it means “pursuing peace”; but then it was reported that Wang’s team believed CCTV has already “rectified the matter,” they even claimed China has budged as it has never changed its opinion before, in an attempt to make everything sounds positive and that attending the forum would be the right thing to do. It would appear that they are very eager to participate, so much so they got rid of people within the party who tried to stop Wang from attending. For them to speak for CCTV before it apologizes, and even attacked and blamed their own people, the party’s habit of having “internal conflicts” has again been exposed. The negative impression and awkwardness caused during the whole process will stay on after the whole saga ends.

Recently, the public representatives for KMT have been working hard rain or shine, to try and win over the public by focusing on livelihood issues and the mistake/broken promises from the Democratic Progress Party (DPP), so that it could step away from the current cross-strait atmosphere which is unfavorable to the blue camp. This would have had been the chance for KMT to gradually gain trust among people, but when KMT’s central administration estimated that, joining the forum would earn them more brownie points, not only has it shifted the news focus to a battlefield that is disadvantageous to itself, but also wasted all the hard works done by its grassroots members.

Furthermore, the dates of the Straits Forum clashes with Undersecretary of State Krach’s Taiwan visit. If KMT takes part in the forum, “pro-China, anti-U.S.” would not just be an image but a solid act in front of the eyes of all Taiwanese, which will then become DPP’s best campaign material for the next 10 years. And what would happen when there is any important political declaration within the country, or if the CCP military continues to harass us while the forum is ongoing, what should the KMT representing team, who are physically on the other side of the Strait, do? Why would KMT central administration agree to cooperate with the CCP’s performance at this time? How bizarre!

In the end, KMT is out of touch with public opinion, but while the CCP military keeps harassing our country, KMT still chooses the wrong time when the image of “pro-China, anti-U.S.” can easily be formed, to take part in Straits Forum, an event with the united front as its goal, it is more than just “out of touch” with public opinion, it is “against” public opinion. It also makes people believe that for KMT, the country’s and party’s dignity is not as important as the huge political and commercial interests behind; even though it is not sending anyone there, but if Lin Rong-te, in the capacity of Taiwan businessman, leads a team to take part, I fear it would only intensify the heavy criticism on KMT’s comprador culture. Conclusion: the interests of a small group of people in KMT is more important than the interests of Taiwan, and this small group of people has control of the whole party.

Even if “beg for peace” never happened, imagine a hundred people strong team, smiling and entering Chinese territory, while the CCP is threatening our country in every possible way; it might work on the political and commercial interest of the participants, but would heavily damage KMT’s credibility in Taiwan, and spoil the effort made by the party’s public representatives, who have been trying tirelessly on the streets and in various political talk shows to gain more support for KMT, who would then only face more difficulty in future elections.

In other words, during this saga, KMT’s lack of sensitivity on the attributes of activity and timing, it failing to focus on Taiwan people’s livelihood issues, etc., has shown that it has undermined the feeling of Taiwan people and the effectiveness of its own public representatives; there were strong opposing voices even before “ask for peace” happened, and after it has happened, KMT was not immediately alert which led to slow reaction, then later was hoping for an apology from CCTV to be the pedestal so that it can still make the trip; all these have been seen as “KMT still really wants to go,” otherwise it would have canceled the trip immediately after being insulted, which has photo evidence and cannot be misinterpreted.

KMT has in the end canceled the official participation of the forum, which dismantled the bomb, but already been interpreted by the public that it has no choice but to cancel as the apology never comes. That means politically it has not done much help because its initial decision of going during bad timing, is already a bad strategic move, but at least it has stopped further damage. However, if Lin does lead a team to attend a Taiwan businessman’s capacity, then KMT’s “really want to go” negative impression would only be further affirmed by the public.

In 2019, Xi Jinping delivered a speech and told Taiwan that he would unify Taiwan on a “one country, two systems” basis, however, he would also reserve the right to use force, which has shocked the whole country and destroyed the foundation of KMT’s “one China with different interpretations.” Not only has that not helped KMT, but also handed Tsai Ing-wen government a large gun. In the future, KMT must be much more prudent when dealing with across the strait and seize every attacking opportunity.

(Chung Shiiu-jiun, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica.)

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