- 11 Aug 2022 11:32
#15242571
Two stories, happening at the same time today (Wednesday/Thursday August 10/11 2022):
The CPC continues to believe a peaceful reunification is possible with Taiwan, but likely only under a KMT government that can renew cross-strait relations and talks. A more likely strategy toward reunification that the CPC will pursue is supporting the KMT in electoral campaigns, as well as providing trade deals and easing cross-strait travel and business restrictions during times the KMT is in power. This was seen during the last KMT government, which ended in 2016. Millions of Taiwanese work in Mainland China or have; the DPP recently passed a series of laws prohibiting engineers and other workers in key industries from working in Mainland China in order to stem brain drain to the mainland as they cannot compete with Chinese salaries. China sees this all as positive.
The KMT currently receives around 30% support in Taiwan. It's support is generally from older individuals and decreasing. The DPP is much more popular today. This trajectory is unlikely to change in the forseeable future, barring massive economic downturn in Taiwan.
Support for outright declaration of independence in Taiwan is more popular among DPP supporters than the average Taiwanese, but still is below 12%. Most wish to maintain the status quo, likely out of fear of the Mainland's response to a declaration of independence.
Most Chinese, in polls, support reunification with Taiwan. Most Chinese, in polls, also oppose violent confrontation with Taiwan or a military attack on Taiwan at the present.
Financial Times wrote:[...]
Andrew Hsia, a veteran diplomat who served as the country’s top China policy official in the last Kuomintang (KMT) government, justified the visit as an attempt to support Taiwanese citizens living in China.
“We have not made any plans to meet Chinese officials, although it is, of course, possible that they will reach out or we might encounter them in the context of our meetings with Taiwanese businesses,” he told the Financial Times before his departure on Wednesday morning for Xiamen in China’s south-eastern Fujian province.
Although the KMT said the visit had been planned for weeks and was unrelated to the crisis in the Taiwan Strait, it will probably prove highly contentious in Taiwan.
Taiwan’s cabinet-level China policy body said it had strongly advised against Hsia’s visit. “This move will cause domestic controversy and anxiety, high public misgivings and affect our internal unity. It will also confuse and mislead the international community’s perception of the threat Taiwan faces,” it said.
“China may ease the military movements a little now that they got the KMT to visit, but they will keep up the pressure,” said Chiu Chui-cheng, the body’s deputy chair.
[...]
Zhu Feng, an international relations professor at Nanjing University, said: “The mainland military exercise is not over yet. It is a very important gesture for the vice-chair of the Kuomintang to come to the mainland. The two sides need to strengthen communication, especially in the current situation.”
Beijing claims Taiwan as its territory and threatens to take it by force if the island resists unification indefinitely. The Chinese Communist party has tried to use the KMT to undermine the authority of Taiwan’s government. [Editorial Note: ]
https://www.ft.com/content/357828f1-10f ... 167823ffdf
Reuters wrote:TAIPEI, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Taiwan rejects the "one country, two systems" model proposed by Beijing in a white paper published this week, the self-ruled island's foreign ministry said on Thursday.
Only Taiwan's people can decide its future, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou told a news conference in Taipei, the capital.
China was using U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei as an "excuse to create a new normality to intimidate Taiwan's people," Ou added.
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-paci ... 022-08-11/
The CPC continues to believe a peaceful reunification is possible with Taiwan, but likely only under a KMT government that can renew cross-strait relations and talks. A more likely strategy toward reunification that the CPC will pursue is supporting the KMT in electoral campaigns, as well as providing trade deals and easing cross-strait travel and business restrictions during times the KMT is in power. This was seen during the last KMT government, which ended in 2016. Millions of Taiwanese work in Mainland China or have; the DPP recently passed a series of laws prohibiting engineers and other workers in key industries from working in Mainland China in order to stem brain drain to the mainland as they cannot compete with Chinese salaries. China sees this all as positive.
The KMT currently receives around 30% support in Taiwan. It's support is generally from older individuals and decreasing. The DPP is much more popular today. This trajectory is unlikely to change in the forseeable future, barring massive economic downturn in Taiwan.
Support for outright declaration of independence in Taiwan is more popular among DPP supporters than the average Taiwanese, but still is below 12%. Most wish to maintain the status quo, likely out of fear of the Mainland's response to a declaration of independence.
Most Chinese, in polls, support reunification with Taiwan. Most Chinese, in polls, also oppose violent confrontation with Taiwan or a military attack on Taiwan at the present.