Kuomintang (KMT), Taiwan’s largest opposition party, was stuck in the geopolitical middle after sending a delegation to mainland China, a shift that stoked critique on both sides of the troubled Taiwan Strait.
The particular KMT, which dominated mainland China between 1925 and 1948, last week sent the delegation to the mainland and will meet Taiwanese firms and students there on August 21 after completing a 10-day pen period.
KMT leaders said the particular trip was targeted at easing the politics tensions in the Taiwan Strait, although it might have a negative impact on the particular party at local elections due in November. They said the particular KMT did not possess any plans to go to Beijing or meet Chinese officials.
Beijing have not yet announced whether mainland officials may officially receive them. Chinese mouthpiece press said it was not really meaningful for the KMT to visit the mainland now because the party had joined the particular self-governing island’s cozy welcome for Nancy Pelosi, the Loudspeaker of US House associated with Representatives, during her Taiwan visit at the begining of August.
Their state media reports said the KMT was obviously a declining political power and faced constraints in supporting nationwide reunification.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Authorities, currently controlled by ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), stated the KMT need to avoid visiting the particular mainland at a time military tensions are running on high in the Taiwan Strait.
In a phone call on July 28, Chinese language President Xi Jinping told US Chief executive Joe Biden the fact that US should the actual “One China” policy and not support “Taiwan independence. ” Nevertheless , Pelosi continued the girl planned schedule yet landed in Taiwan on August 2 and met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on August 3 or more.
After Pelosi’s departure, the PLA held a three-day exercise near Taiwan and released at least 11 Dongfeng ballistic missiles close to Taiwan, with some flying over the island and a few falling into Japan’s Exclusive Economic Area, between August 4 and 6.
State press said last week that after this round of drills, the PLA had turned its military plans into realistic options and these type of drills will end up a new normal. Someone said the PLA would seamlessly turn a future exercise into actual combat, especially when the particular Taiwanese army was tired and dropped its preparedness.
Some Western columnists said the US need to avoid sending politicians to Taiwan as the Ukraine war had not yet ended.
Thomas Friedman, an opinion columnist at the New York Situations, wrote in an article on Aug 1 that he highly regarded Pelosi but he thought her visit to Taiwan was “utterly reckless” as the Chinese language military’s strong reaction would push the US into indirect clashes with Russia and China, both nuclear-armed, at the same time.
Last Wednesday, KMT’s vice chairman Andrew Hsia said he would shortly lead a delegation to visit mainland Tiongkok. He said the visit was planned several months ago and has been intended to understand the complications Taiwanese firms and students living in the mainland face.
The delegation will start its activities on August 21. It is going to first meet Taiwanese companies in Xiamen in Fujian state and then visit Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan in Guangdong province. It will meet business people in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shanghai in between August 23 and 25 and return to Xiamen before soaring back to Taiwan on August 27.
Taiwan’s Landmass Affairs Council said it was regretful that the KMT insisted on visiting the particular mainland shortly after the particular PLA held a massive military exercise around the island.
It said the KMT should condemn the PLA’s exercises and show that it was standing up together with the Taiwanese people. It warned the fact that KMT would get into the trap from the Communist Party associated with China (CPC), which wanted to use military threats to push forward a settlement about reunification.
On August thirteen, KMT chairman Eric Chu Li-luan stated the party got already discussed along with political experts concerning the effect of sending a delegation to landmass China.
Chu acknowledged that the journey would negatively impact the KMT’s performance from your elections in Nov but it was nevertheless worth it to maintain the communication channel in between Taiwan and mainland China. He mentioned if such a station was cut-off, the particular deterioration in relations would eventually harm the island.
Two other KMT heavyweights, including former chairman Ma Ying-jeou and 2024 Taiwan presidential election’s potential KMT candidate Jaw Shaw-kong, also said over the weekend they backed Hsia’s trip.
Chinese military commentator Liu Yong said the KMT would strengthen support from its voters if this could maintain the dialogue with Beijing when military stress in the Taiwan Strait were high. Liu said the DPP opposed the KMT’s mainland trip as it feared that the KMT could gain votes in November.
Liu said Taiwan and mainland Cina had maintained a detailed economic relationship in the last two decades while many Taiwanese people had taken it for given. He said without the mainland’s help, the particular Taiwanese economy could have collapsed a long time ago.
He noted China and taiwan had stopped adding Taiwanese fruits and freezing seafood after Pelosi’s Taiwan visit. This individual said Taiwanese businesses in the mainland got felt the pain however the DPP could not provide any help to them. He said by going to Chinese cities, the particular KMT could show its supporters that it had the ability to change and stabilize the situation.
However , Liu also criticized the KMT for becoming another pro-US party like the DPP in recent years. For example , he said many KMT politicians had welcomed Pelosi during her trip to Taiwan in early Aug.
According to the KMT’s Facebook, the party issued several statements in early August to praise Pelosi for standing up meant for Taiwan and supporting the island’s democratic development.
In a Facebook post on June 29, the KMT said the Republic of China (ROC) is a sovereign state and has never halted its ruling in Taiwan since 1945. Until now, Beijing has not yet said whether any Chinese officials would meet Hsia during his landmass trip.
In articles and movies, Chinese media mentioned it was not meaningful for the KMT to check out the mainland at this point as it would not be able to adopt a pro-Beijing stance in the growing process due to the political facts before Taiwan’s “nine-in-one elections” to choose local officials plus councilors on November 26.
Tiongkok Review News Agency, a Hong Kong-based pro-Beijing website, said in an article on July thirty that the KMT’s Chu had faced criticism from key party members after this individual praised former Taiwanese leader Lee Teng-hui for promoting democracy in Taiwan. Chu said the KMT had no purpose of changing its evaluation of Lee’s period.
Lee served as Taiwan’s leader and chairman of the KMT between 1988 and 2000. After he was removed from the KMT, this individual set up the Taiwan Solidarity Union within 2001 to drive forward a localization movement.
Another Chinese article said on August 13 that because the KMT was forced to leave mainland China and taiwan in 1949, the political power had been weakening. It noted that the KMT again lost in the presidential election in 2k to the DPP and failed to reform alone during its return between 2008 plus 2016.
It said it had been disappointing that KMT’s Han Guo-yu had been forced to step lower from his position as Kaohsiung mayor in mid-2020.
Meanwhile, ALL OF US Senator Ed Markey and a bipartisan, bicameral US congressional abordnung landed in Taipei on August twelve on a two-day visit to discuss bilateral protection, economic and business developments.
Markey met Chief executive Tsai and other Taiwanese officials on Monday. They also met associates of the private industry to discuss shared interests including reducing stress in the Taiwan Strait and investments within semiconductors.
Markey said this individual believed that US-Taiwan ties would carry on and grow and that the US had a moral responsibility to ensure Taiwan’s serenity and stability among rising uncertainties in the area.
Tsai said Taiwan was happy to see that the US had recently exceeded the Chips plus Science Act and that the island’s chip makers were thinking about investing in the US.
The People’s Freedom Army (PLA)’s Far eastern Theater Command said on Monday (August 15) it had started new drills to deter the US, which it said was playing tricks with the Taiwan issue and undermined peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for that Taiwan Affairs Office of China’s Condition Council, said Markey’s Taiwan visit was another instance that the US was intentionally disrupting peacefulness and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
“The erroneous react seriously violated the main one China principle and the provisions of the three Sino-US joint communiques, and we firmly oppose it, ” Ma said. “It completely exposes the menacing intentions of the US in using Taiwan to contain the mainland, and the DPP regulators in relying on the united states to seek ‘independence. ’”
Ma stated some US politicians had not learned from your serious consequences that followed Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan. He mentioned the DPP regulators would face more severe measures if they continuing their “separatist” actions.
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