Putting out the ‘red unification’ fire

Home Editorials Thu, Oct 07, 2021 page8 Putting out the ‘red unification’ fire By Chin Heng-wei 金恒煒 The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) elected a new chairperson on Sept. 25, with Eric Chu (朱立倫) winning the race to succeed Johnny Chiang (江啟臣). While the election was contested vociferously, hardly any Taiwanese from outside the party took notice. This is because the internal machinations of the KMT are of little consequence to Taiwan: It matters not who won. The latest edition of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, released in February, saw Taiwan move up 20 notches to place 11th globally, joining the ranks of full democracies. Public participation in political decisionmaking in Taiwan shows that democracy has replaced authoritarianism in a strong rebuke to China’s dictatorship. Taiwan’s anti-China sentiment stems from the public’s firm belief in civil values and the power of democracy. Taiwanese view democracy as their destiny. However, the KMT is unable to extricate itself from its “unification” straitjacket, which has caused democratic Taiwan’s trust in the party to go into free-fall. The KMT’s chairperson election was a four-way race between Chiang, Chu, former Changhua County commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) and Sun Yat-sen School president Chang Ya-chung (張亞中). Chang was the most prominent individual in the race, and was accused by Chu of being a “red unification” — a position close to that of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — candidate, burnishing Chang’s credentials as the party’s gold-plated pro-China candidate. Chang therefore performed a useful function as a barometer for pro-unification sentiment within the KMT. Chang gained approximately 30 percent of the total vote, while the ostensibly anti-unification candidates received 70 percent between them. Nevertheless, Chu was reportedly taken aback by Chang’s rapid rise and strong performance. Both the voter turnout rate of 50.71 percent and Chu’s 45 percent share of the votes were record lows for KMT chairperson election, a sign of the party’s shrinking fortunes. Chu’s victory turned out to be expensive for the party, as it essentially “saved” Chu rather than Chu saving the party. In other words, the problem facing the KMT is that on one hand, it relies on “red unification” to sustain its position, while on the other, it vigorously resists the “red unification” faction to prevent it from taking control of the party and dragging it onto the rocks. During the election campaign, Chu unequivocally vilified the “red unification” faction, yet now that he has been elected, he will be unable to escape their influence. The KMT’s deep-seated structural problem is now Chu’s problem. Chang ostentatiously flew the flag for unification with China when he announced his bid for the chairpersonship: It was a calculated plan. To say that the KMT is long in the tooth would be an understatement: 70 percent of its members are older than 65, while the majority of its members are waishengren (外省人) — Chinese who came to Taiwan with the Nationalist government after World War II — or retired military members, civil servants and teachers. Chang gained 60,632 votes compared with Chu’s 85,164. However, a breakdown of the vote shows that Chang lost to Chu by just more than 200 votes in Taipei. In Kaohsiung’s Zuoying (左營) and Fongshan (鳳山) districts, where a large number of military veterans live, Chang received more votes than Chu. In other words, Chang had the unification vote sewn up. Since Chu dared criticize Chang about his unification stance, it is unsurprising that Chang hoovered up this section of the KMT’s voter base. This also means that Chu is now starting out as the weakest chairperson in the party’s history. As Chu has thoroughly alienated the unification voter base, if he wants to win an election, he must lance the unification boil and steer the KMT toward becoming a normal political party. However, the situation is not so simple. Chu is a fervent admirer of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and appears to view Xi’s congratulatory telegram as an imperial edict. Chu’s sycophantic reply reads like a total capitulation to the pro-unification camp. This is perhaps why former KMT legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅), commenting on the election result, said that Chang had not lost, and attaining the second-highest vote tally shows that popular sentiment within the party is on Chang’s side. Chu used his victory speech at the KMT party headquarters to shamelessly boast that “it is time for the DPP [Democratic Progressive Party] to start worrying,” following this up with “because the KMT will overflow with fighting spirit and unity.” This is the important point: Now that Chu has taken over the reins, his most urgent goal is not to fight the DPP, but to put out the “red unification” fire. The combative, deep-blue KMT member Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) has called for “unity, unity and more unity,” the most prominent member of the KMT aristocracy, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), has called on New Party members to “refocus on unity,” and National Sun Yat-sen University professor Liao Da-chi (廖達琪), a pan-blue camp academic, has said that Chu should “handle internal problems first before tackling external threats.” In other words, a weak Chu does not need to worry about the DPP; he should be concerned with internal “unity” by party hardliners. In an opinion piece published on Sept. 26 in the Chinese-language United Daily News, Huang Nien (黃年) wrote that Chang’s success might trigger a “catfish effect” — when a strong competitor causes a weaker competitor to better themselves, while Yang Tai-shun (楊泰順), also in the United Daily News, wrote about “The Chang whirlwind effect’s transformative direction.” All of these voices are attempting to do the same thing: force Chu to give in to the unification camp. In the Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢), there is a passage that reads: “If the easterly wind does not overwhelm the westerly wind, then the westerly wind will overwhelm the easterly wind.” With the elections over, Chang and his supporters will overwhelm Chu, and Chu will not be able to stop them from bringing the KMT further down the road to “red unification.” Chin Heng-wei is a political commentator. Translated by Edward Jones