• By Chen Chi-nung 陳啟濃

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) often accuses the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of using smear tactics to attack the KMT. However, should Chu fail to respond to the following points appropriately, it would be evidence of the KMT’s pro-Chinese Communist Party (CPP) and pro-unification stance. The public would remember this clearly – there is no need to accuse the DPP of smear tactics.

First, does the KMT’s approach to the Republic of China (ROC) include China or is it limited to Taiwan, including Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang counties?

The Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文) define the ROC’s effective area of ​​governance as limited to “Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu” – yet the KMT consistently insists that China is part of the ROC’s sovereign territory . If so, does the party hope to provoke a dispute with the CCP or is it ambiguous?

Second, although KMT lawmakers and high-ranking officials have repeatedly shown favor to the CCP—accepting invitations, holding secret negotiations, and openly honoring the CCP flag and the Chinese national anthem—the party has reacted with indifference. It has made no attempt to oppose or end this type of behaviour. It is therefore only natural that the Taiwanese see the KMT as a pro-CCP, pro-unification party that would sell out Taiwan.

Third, the KMT opposes measures to protect the country and strengthen national defense. In addition to blocking the budget, it has also been involved in stealing confidential national defense documents and has even intimidated people, saying that Taiwan would have no choice but to go to war if it did not maintain friendly relations with the CCP.

If we lack a strong deterrent to the threat of invasion, are we supposed to simply pin our hope for peace on the goodwill of the CCP?

Shouldn’t we be worried about repeating the mistake of the “Chongqing Negotiations”—short-lived peace talks that ultimately failed to end the CCP’s military actions and led to the KMT’s defeat in the Chinese Civil War—again?

Next, why does the KMT so often cooperate with the CCP in making sentimental appeals based on cultural righteousness, asking Taiwanese to see themselves as Chinese, as if we are all part of some big CCP family?

Even a hundred-year-old political party could not distinguish between a country and a culture – national identity and cultural heritage cannot be mixed. Having similar cultural sentiments is not necessarily the same as accepting the same national identity.

Finally, the KMT only has one more legislative seat than the DPP, but its lawmakers have consistently proposed changes to the Legislative Yuan that could well destroy our nation’s constitutional foundation.

These include weakening the powers of the Constitutional Court, eliminating state oversight of the media, increasing KMT-controlled local government budgets, and weakening the central government’s and expanding the Legislative Yuan’s power to encroach on the executive’s powers over personnel—all in line. with the CCP’s conspiracy to turn the Legislative Yuan into a battlefield.

Only after Chu is able to answer the aforementioned questions and provide an adequate explanation to the public would he have the right to demand that the DPP end its smear campaigns.

Chen Chi-nung is a political commentator.

Translated by Kyra Gustavsen