DPP Repeatedly Shifts Concepts: Take Caution of Bringing Cross-Strait Relations to Dead End
United Daily News Commentary, August 1, 2024
According to Baidu Encyclopedia, "concept-substitution," a Chinese phrase, means a logical mistake by using a different concept, consciously or unconsciously, to replace an original one in the process of debate.
If one still does not understand the phrase, simply observe a few of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) gimmicks:
On conducting negotiations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, the Chinese side has always insisted on the “One China” principle as manifested by the “1992 Consensus."
Unfortunately, the DPP has never accepted the 1992 Consensus.
The DPP even equates the 1992 Consensus" with "One Country, Two Systems” after Chinese President Xi Jinping presented the idea of "achieving a systemic arrangement through negotiations in the peaceful development of the cross-strait relations" based on the 1992 Consensus in the meeting commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Message to Compatriots in Taiwan on January 2, 2019. This is an example of concept-substitution.
Although then-President Tsai Ing-wen did not accept the 1992 Consensus either, she at least expressed her respect, in her 2016 inaugural address, for the historical facts and common understandings achieved since 1992 by the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Incumbent President Lai Ching-te, however, point-blankly opposes the 1992 Consensus," and has reiterated that the 1992 Consensus in the end will only lead Taiwan to become another Hong Kong.
Even so, the Chinese authority is still adamant on the position of "no 1992 Consensus, no formal negotiations." This is why the Kinmen speedboat incident on February 14 has been delayed for more than five months until it's resolved a few days ago. This indicates that even a small issue cannot be easily resolved without a formal negotiation.
But on this incident, the Deputy Minister and Spokesman Liang Wen-chieh of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) called it a negotiation “between parties involved" across the Taiwan Strait. However, Minister Chiu Chui-cheng of the MAC later emphasized that the handling of the whole incident is "government-led."
Soon after MAC officials' related statements, Spokesman Chen Binhua of the Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) of the mainland China’s State Council, in the evening of the same day, made known that the communications on the speedboat incident between two sides of the Taiwan Strait has nothing to do with "the formal cross-strait negotiation." Chen reiterated that the formal cross-strait negotiation can only resume on the political basis of the "1992 Consensus."
This is exactly why we have to clarify the difference between the U.S. “One China” policy and the mainland’s "One China" principle and why the mainland is so keen on whether other countries "acknowledge" or "recognize" China's sovereignty claim over Taiwan. The ordinary people don’t have to understand those troublesome "play on words." But Taiwan's officials must.
President Lai's administration and its mouthpiece intentionally manipulate "the Shift of Concept" to put in relief that without the 1992 Consensus cross-strait issues could still be resolved. This of course could greatly benefit its propaganda over Taiwanese people. However, the ruling DPP has to be careful that every time it manipulates “concept-substitution” distrust on the part of Chinese authority toward the DPP will deepen again against the backdrop of no trust between the DPP and Communist China.
Although the speedboat incident has been resolved after a delay of five months, there are still other cross-strait issues that remain to be solved. The effect of the manipulation on the Kinmen speedboat incident by the Lai administration remains to be seen. Perhaps we could see when angler surnamed Hu and the crew members of the Taiwanese fishing vessel, detained by the mainland for some time, could be released. But if the DPP continues to manipulate "the Shift of Concept" in the cross-strait relations, it will only lead the relations to a dead end and the consequences will be bore by no other than the innocent people of Taiwan.