Former Premier：Taiwan Should Politely Decline McCarthy Visit
By Liu Chao-shiuan
United Daily News, February 3, 2023
When running for chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) at the end of last year, Vice President Willian Lai proposed the idea of “peaceful protection of Taiwan,” an obvious change from the DPP’s previous steadfast position of “resist China to protect Taiwan”.
At the beginning of this year, the Democratic Education Foundation, which leans towards the Kuomintang (KMT), published a poll on whether “resisting China to protect Taiwan” or “maintaining peace with China to protect Taiwan” is the most beneficial to Taiwan. 53 percent of the people think that “maintaining peace with China to protect Taiwan” is the most beneficial and only 25 percent think that “resisting China to protect Taiwan” is the most advantageous. In the same poll, regarding whether or not “a pro-U.S. position can protect Taiwan,” 62 percent of the people disagreed and only 29 percent of the people agreed. These two pieces of news seem to reveal that the opinion of the Taiwanese people on cross-strait relations has begun to change.
This phenomenon can be seen in the nine-in-one elections last year. The DPP performed poorly in the elections for mayors and councils in various counties. The DPP’s promoting “resist China to protect Taiwan” had obviously not exerted its combat power. Furthermore, the DPP’s card of “pro-U.S. can protect Taiwan” had already begun to lose its value as early as August last year. Speaker Pelosi’s one-day visit to Taiwan resulted in mainland China performing live ammunition and real-life military exercises, surrounding Taiwan by sea and air. The original so-called “central line” in the Taiwan Strait is gone forever. Just imagine the heavy criticism that the mainland’s military exercises around Taiwan would have received if then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi had not visited. However, her visit is precisely the reason why there were voices of concern internationally but almost no voices of condemnation. Even the United States could not say much about the situation because Taiwan was reaping the fruit of its own actions. The Russia-Ukraine war has been going on for a year and still no sight of the end. The international mainstream media almost unanimously listed the Taiwan Strait Crisis as the top hotspot of all global crises. So far, the United States and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies only provided weapons and ammunition without engaging in the war themselves. It may be that Western strategists define this war only between Russia and Ukraine. On top of that, the use of a proxy war can drag down Russia. Many people evaluate the Taiwan Strait war as even more dangerous. If a conflict breaks out, it may trigger a world war.
All at once, all kinds of speculations about war in the Taiwan Strait, the time war may break out, and other predictions came out one after another. It is suspected that strategic elites in the United States are planning to replicate another Ukrainian war in the Taiwan Strait, using the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan as the battlefield to drag down China. Taiwan has suddenly been thrust into the spotlight of a global crisis and has been described as an ammunition depot or an island of mines among descriptions that indicate its high level of danger.
If one could think outside the box of the entangling complexity of the cross-strait relations, then one may discover that the unprecedented serious situation of the Taiwan Strait Crisis only magnifies the importance of a peaceful settlement between the two sides of the Strait. The significance of peace is not only a common expectation for the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, it is also a key to maintaining world peace. The severity of the damage and destruction caused by the Russia-Ukraine war to the Ukrainian people and their land is shocking. Finding a peaceful resolution to the cross-strait issue is by no means an easy task, but how to maintain peace and avoid war is indeed the present top priority. Recently, there is a rumor that Kevin McCarthy, the newly elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, will follow his predecessor Pelosi’s lead and visit Taiwan. If the rumor is true, then it is foreseeable that the visit will increase the tension in the Taiwan Strait and the risk of misfires, or even serious conflicts. Taiwan has the responsibility to kindly reject the offer for the better.
The 2024 election could have an impact on maintaining or disrupting world peace. All of a sudden, Taiwan finds itself at a crossroads that could lead to very different paths. Would Taiwan’s next steps detonate a war or keep the current peace? The choices that the people of Taiwan make will receive unprecedented attention from the world. The question is: have the people of Taiwan thought it through?