KMT mindset

Premier Wu Dun-yi revealed some of the KMT's fundamental ideas about Taiwan's future, and it has landed him in enough trouble that he's apologized for it:

His apology, however, came hours after several attempts to defend his remarks.

Wu said during an interview with the UFO Network on Tuesday: “If you want to talk about unification, nobody will support it. You don’t have the capability to unify [China] and you don’t want to be unified by it. Declaring independence is unnecessary because the ROC [Republic of China] is already an independent, sovereign nation. If you want to found a country with a different national title, it will only create division at home and stir tensions abroad. Only irresponsible people or idiots would want to seek independence [for Taiwan].”

Here were Wu's remarks in Chinese as quoted by Liberty Times: 「不負責任者或白痴，才會覺得應該搞個獨立國」 My translation: Only the irresponsible and idiotic think Taiwan should mess around being an independent country.

The Liberty Times, in a caption on that link above, notes that the KMT took out a front page ad in that paper after winning the 2008 presidential election. That ad outlined the KMT's support for maintaining the status quo of the ROC government, while noting that "Taiwan could make many choices about its future, and no matter whether that means unification, independence or maintaining the status quo, it is up to the people to decide."

Except, of course, independence supporters are either irresponsible or idiots, so that's not really a choice the KMT will give the people in the future, much less through referendum.

Finally, in Wu's defense, he's just towing a deeply held belief and the party line, that the ROC is the sovereign, legitimate government of both Taiwan and China. So there's really nothing out of line about his remarks, except that they reveal an ugly mindset which the KMT would rather keep submerged for now.