You go girl!
ICRT:
Gaoxiong Mayor - Chen Chu - has become the highest-level incumbent official from the main opposition D-P-P to travel to China.Chen Chu also referred to "President Ma," "our country [contrasting with China]" and "our central government" when talking to the Beijing mayor yesterday. She also told him that the CCP must listen not only to the KMT itself but to the grass roots voices in Taiwan.
Chen arrived in Beijing yesterday to attend the Paris-based International Real Estate Federation's 60-th World Congress .. and - while in China - she also plans to promote the 2009 World Games - which will take place in Gaoxiong in July.
The Gaoxiong mayor refused to apply for a China-issued "Taiwan compatriot entry permit" ... saying that she hoped to be allowed entry into China under a formula used by Taiwan officials attending activities held in China by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
Speaking to reporters on her arrival in Beijing .. Chen said that her visit can be defined as an "ice-breaking, or trailblazing event" ... and that she hopes it will inspire the Beijing leadership to understand that there is a gap between what they have learned from the K-M-T and what she called the "mainstream grassroots opinion."
She was quickly praised by both KMT and DPP caucuses, and Speaker of the Legislative Yuan Wang Jin-pyng also praised Chen Chu for her remarks. KMT chair Wu Po-hsiung saying these forms of address are "normal" -- even though he couldn't bring himself to call Ma President while hosting Chen Yunlin in Taipei. One reporter asked Wu if he would use the form of address "President Ma" next time he was in China, to which he responded cryptically, "you will know when that time comes."
9 comments:
I will never understand the kowtowing to BJ over the use of the proper titles of officials in Taiwan. Would there really be any negative consequences if all Taiwanese did it? It's doubtful.
Kowtowing? When the KMT/CCP hold their bilateral meetings, Hu Jintao is also referred to exclusively as party secretary, rather than president. Is Hu Jintao kowtowing to the KMT as well?
As far as Chen Ju's visit goes, IMO the most significant fact is this:
陈菊说，这不是她第一次到北京。1989年，她担任台北市社会局长时，曾以私人身份到北京探望友人。
Chen Ju said, this isn't the first time she's visited Beijing. In 1989, while head of the Taipei city government social bureau, she visited friends in Beijing in a private capacity.
It's been 20 years since she's visited mainland China... not just a generation ago, but an epoch ago. This is unfortunately the rule rather than the exception for the vast majority of senior DPP policymakers. They know not of which they speak.
As far as "political subservience", I fully expect the final solution for unification to include no elements of "subservience".
Interesting anecdote showing just how deep and convoluted the ties run...
Chen Ju will be spending part of her time visiting Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery. Babaoshan is reserved for the PRC's greatest "revolutionary heroes", the equivalent of Washington DC's Arlington.
Why's Chen Ju visiting? A close friend of hers (and classmate from Kaohsiung high school), Su Qingli, is buried there.
Turns out she's the daughter of Su Xin. Su Xin was actually the founder of the underground Taiwanese Communist Party (during the Japanese era). After 2-28, leftists + Communist activists were hunted down (228 had nothing to do with Taidu, and everything to do with leftist activism), and Su Xin fled to Hong Kong and eventually the mainland. Su Xin was eventually entombed as one of the heroes of the revolution. Upon her death of cancer, Su Qingli was buried there as well.
Ah, 20th century Chinese history... such an interesting age.
"Kowtowing? When the KMT/CCP hold their bilateral meetings, Hu Jintao is also referred to exclusively as party secretary, rather than president. Is Hu Jintao kowtowing to the KMT as well?"
ROFL CCTang - you just don't get it, do you? If Hu is referred to as 'party secretary' as you say, then that's because that's what he is in this context - a meeting betwen parties, not countries. Don't worry, the CCP will never kowtow to the KMT, much less anyone else.
And BTW, what is a 'bilateral meeting'? Is there any other kind?
I don't know about all that, but we're going to wipe the floor with you lot tomorrow... :)
I approve of citing ICRT.
To CCTang: You may consider the book 日據時代台灣共產黨史, which besides covering the leftist activism in Taiwan during the Japanese rule era, also helps trace the path by which Su Bing (史明) and other Marxist activists became Taiwanese nationalists as well. The common theme tends to be Leftists go to China, become disappointed in the Chinese Communist Party, and come back to Taiwan as determined to prevent CCP rule as they were to subvert the reactionary KMT.
Additionally, I would suggest it's no surprise DPP politicians, who actively support TI, a crime in China, do not visit China more often.
And I do not share your optimism for a 'unification' solution leaving out political subservience. I don't see how the CCP could give that final trump card up.
To Stripe: We certainly didn't look impressive out there, did we? Perhaps we should have let you bat first. It might have changed the dynamic. If we had batted at our normal level, I think we would have probably won the game.
Next time, eh matey :)
Did you hear we won the final? Visit the Taipei Times sports page for the report (online and print).
I will be buying a print copy then today, at least you guys took the gold! I stayed for the first 4-5 overs of the final but I had to get going after that.
Congrats on the win, and it certainly makes me feel a little better!
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