The week-long protest against the secretive talks between China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yun-lin and Strait Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Ping-kun for Taiwan's Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) government launched by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party and other Taiwan-centric political and social groups started with legitimate and effective actions to "check and balance" President Ma Ying-jeou's China - tilting policy but regretfully ended Thursday with an unexpected clash between a fundamentalist group and Taichung City police.
To avoid a repeat of police abuse of power on the protesters and the bloodshed in Taipei on Chen's first visit to Taiwan last November, the Ma government deployed heavier security to block demonstrators from approaching Chen in every occasion.
Nevertheless, the DPP-led demonstration on Dec. 20 resulted in a peaceful and democratic expression of public dissatisfaction by nearly 100,000 persons with the KMT government's notorious lack of transparency and democratic accountability in its negotiations with the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party ruled People's Republic of China.
Were it not for the DPP's reviving public support in the wake of its strong performance in the "three in one" local elections Dec. 5, the Ma administration would have faced no restraints in handling demonstrators and pressing forward even faster with its unilateral and "black-box" negotiation on signing a controversial "Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement" with Beijing.
The importance of the DPP's persistent pressure on the Ma government to comprehensively explain the risks as well as the supposed benefits of its ECFA agenda to the public was also shown by the fact that virtually every opinion survey on the issue shows that the majority of the Taiwan people do not understand what the ECFA is and that less than a majority now support promoting the accord.
The last minute breakdown of an SEF-ARATS agreement on avoidance of dual taxation and other tax affairs cooperation reflected the political reality that treating Taiwan as the PRC's Hong Kong Special Administrative Zone was totally unacceptable for the majority of the Taiwan people and even for Taiwan businessmen with investments in China.
Feasible and principles alternatives
The DPP deserves credit for highlighting the significance of democratic checks and balance, expressing the majority of the public opinion in a peaceful way and upholding Taiwan's national interests.
However, the DPP must now face the question of what to do next in the wake of the agreement of the KMT and CCP regimes to launch ECFA talks and accelerate Taiwan's absorption into the PRC-dominated "one China market."
To begin with, DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen should accept the challenge by new KMT Secretary-general King Pu-tsung to describe what alternative policy she can offer instead of the ECFA.
Despite King's own failure to offer a convincing explanation of why the ECFA is the only solution for Taiwan's economy, Tsai and her party do have the political obligation to explain to Taiwan's people how they would handle the pressure of a "rising China" and its magnetic economic attraction differently.
When it was in power, the former DPP administration under ex-president Chen Shui-bian initially adopted a fairly liberal strategy of "active opening and effective management" and actually conducted the groundwork negotiations on cross-strait special charter flights and opening Taiwan to Chinese tourists and agreements.
Even while shifting primary emphasis to "active management"in its second term, the former DPP administration attempted to forge a mutually benefical economic relationship despite the political deadlock over the DPP's refusal to accept Beijing's demand to acknowledge that Taiwan was part of the PRC.
In the end, the PRC regime decided to give the credit to the Ma administration by fast-tracking cross-strait opening with the clear political objective of ensuring that the KMT remains in power indefinitely. By making the KMT political dependent on Beijing's good graces, the PRC has also ensured that Ma remains vulnerable to pressure for concessions on future negotiations on cross-strait "peace" and ultimate unification.
Nevertheless, simply boycotting Ma's cross-strait economic agenda is not enough.
For example, besides pressuring the Ma administration to promise that Beijing will allow Taiwan to sign free trade agreements with other countries after inking the ECFA, the DPP must articulate its own feasible alternative strategies to secure a "win-win" cross-strait economic relationship, sustain Taiwan's global economic advantages and dynamism, secure democratic transparency and uphold Taiwan's international dignity.
Future DPP leaders, especially the next potential DPP presidential candidate, must also formulate effective responses to inevitable accusations by the KMT of being a "troublemaker" if he or she does not promise to implement the KMT-CCP agreements if the DPP returns to power in 2012.
What the DPP needs to do soon is hold a broad-based discussion and public debate on its future China policy to serve as a foundation for its future policy platform and for the education of Taiwan's electorate.
Source: Taiwan News Online - Editorial 2009/12/28
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