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EDITORIAL: How to
lose ‘hearts and minds’
It is fascinating how an otherwise sophisticated united front campaign initiated
by Beijing to win the “hearts and minds” of Taiwanese can, in some instances,
descend into a crude and self-defeating tirade — and nothing draws the worst out
of Chinese officials like the idea that democracy could generate outcomes that
depart from Beijing’s plans.
The latest instance came over the weekend, when Chinese People’s Political
Consultative Conference Chairman Jia Qinglin (賈慶林) told Taiwanese during a
cross-strait forum that they should “choose the right person” and “vote for the
right people” in next year’s presidential and legislative elections.
There is little doubt that by “right person,” Jia meant President Ma Ying-jeou
(馬英九) and that the “right people” are Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)
candidates.
Of course, it is beyond Jia’s comprehension, along with that of his political
masters, that he has no right to decide for Taiwanese who the “right” person to
represent them might be. It is also ironic that an official operating in an
authoritarian system where the party, then the state, dictates what is “best”
for its citizens, would presume to educate a polity that has cultivated
democracy — and used it as an instrument of empowerment — for 15 years.
Farce aside, the remark, which could not have been made without official
approval from Zhongnanhai, highlights what can only be interpreted as a growing
sense of insecurity in Beijing. With Ma’s re-election far from being a foregone
conclusion, Beijing is aware that despite warmer ties, tour groups and spending
sprees, it has fallen well short of converting Taiwanese to the idea that China
is a friend. In fact, the closer contacts that have resulted from Ma’s
cross-strait policies have in several ways merely highlighted the myriad little
ways, some trivial, others less so, in which Taiwan and China differ.
It is the right of every Taiwanese to use his or her vote to calibrate
government behavior, from the minutiae of everyday life all the way to
interactions with authoritarian Beijing. For people like Jia, only the “right
person” can ensure continuity in cross-strait exchanges, which underpins
Beijing’s plans for eventual unification. However, to Jia’s chagrin, Taiwanese
may see things otherwise.
His warning also contains a reminder that in the lead-up to the elections on
Jan. 14, the Chinese Communist Party will do its utmost to assist its friends in
the KMT, which is likely to translate into wide-ranging political interference
in the nation’s domestic affairs. It remains to be seen whether KMT officials,
fearing for their political survival, will give in to the allure of Chinese
assistance. One test will be whether the Government Information Office, which
went on the offensive last week over the light-hearted designation of Taipei as
a city of gluttony, will react with similar energy to the naked attempt by
another country to influence Taiwan’s democratic system.
Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has a gargantuan
challenge on its hands. Not only must it prevail in an electoral system that
already favors the KMT and an elite bureaucracy that is largely beholden to the
KMT, it will also have to do so in an environment that is increasingly being
shaped by Beijing.
Nevertheless, Jia may have unwittingly given the DPP a boost, as warnings and
scare tactics have time and again backfired with Taiwanese voters. While more
diplomatic than the lobbing of ballistic missiles into the waters off Taiwan in
the run-up to the presidential election in 1996, the result of Jia’s ill-veiled
threat is likely to be the same: Taiwanese do not like to be told what to think
or how to vote.
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