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EDITORIAL: WikiLeaks
confirms what we knew
The furor over a large batch of Taiwan-related diplomatic cables that WikiLeaks
recently dumped on the Internet drowns out one important point — we already knew
most of this stuff.
Most China watchers already knew that the so-called “1992 consensus” was a farce
and that it has been used by Beijing to push the “one China” principle. It is
obvious that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) under President Ma Ying-jeou
(馬英九) was extraordinarily naive in thinking that their Chinese Communist Party
counterparts would allow a system that tacitly recognized two Chinas. Anybody
who watches Taiwanese politics knew that Ma and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng
(王金平) were not bosom buddies, and that former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) was
marginalized by Ma — not that Lien did not do a good enough job of that on his
own.
Is it that big a surprise that Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) has been going
out of his way to help the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) build its colossal
new headquarters in Neihu District (內湖) over the objections of residents? Didn’t
the allegations of back-room dealings regarding the Xinsheng Overpass scandal
and all the public money spent on the Taipei International Flora Expo already
give people an idea as to what kind of a guy Hau is?
Even Joe Schmoe who picks up a newspaper once a month knows that the Economic
Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) was not all it was touted to be. That
post-ECFA wave of free-trade agreements (FTA) never materialized, despite all
the assurances of the Ma administration. It does not take a WikiLeaks cable
quoting former AIT director Stephen Young saying that he doubts the ECFA would
deliver on regional FTAs for us to know that the entire agreement was really
just a way for China to get its claws deeper into Taiwan.
All these points are fairly obvious to those who follow the cross-strait
situation, so the revelations are not all that surprising. What they are,
however, is the first confirmation by the people in charge of what we have
suspected all along.
After reading through these WikiLeaks cables, in which Chinese officials are
quoted as openly saying that the so-called “1992 consensus” was a fabrication of
former National Security Council secretary-general Su Chi (蘇起), how can Ma
continue to defend the policy with a straight face? It is plain for anyone to
see that Ma has just been using the consensus to cover up his opposition to
Taiwanese independence, while China is using it to absorb as much of Taiwan as
it can before Taiwanese officials come to their senses.
Ma’s tensions with the KMT old guard are well-known, but they have never been
confirmed so explicitly. They have always been an open secret. Now, however, the
cat is out of the bag. How can Ma continue to lead KMT officials loyal to Wang,
Lien and former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄)? Ma’s complete lack of respect
for People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) also bodes ill for the
president. These cables lend weight to a possible decision by Soong to run
against Ma. With such internal tensions laid bare, will the pan-blue camp be
able to recover before the presidential election in January?
Ma constructed his entire cross-strait policy and party politics on a number of
lies. Now that the truth is out, his house of cards is starting to fall apart.
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