Cheng Li-wun's ‘Taiwanese nation’
During her visit to the People's Republic of China, seen as a sign of the pro-Beijing orientation of Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang leader surprisingly paid homage to Sun Yat-sen at his mausoleum, praising his role in the development of the island's “national identity”, in an attempt to reconcile Taiwanese attitudes to Beijing’s outstretched hand.
Milan (AsiaNews) – Kuomintang chairwoman Cheng Li-wun is currently visiting the People's Republic of China, where she is expected to meet with President Xi Jinping on Friday.
For years, her party has been much closer to the mainland than Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of incumbent President Lai Ching-te.
This visit comes ten years after the last time a Kuomintang leader set foot in China, and is obviously being closely monitored given the tensions between the mainland and the island, particularly in the relation to the standoff over new US military supplies to Taiwan.
Cheng said that she was making a "historic journey for peace,” while acknowledging the concerns of many Taiwanese citizens.
Her view is that those who truly love Taiwan should seize every opportunity to avoid conflict and expressed hope that her mission will help transform an extremely dangerous situation into a safer one.
The DPP has taken a different view of the initiative, arguing that since China continues to pursue its goal of annexation, Cheng risks becoming a tool in China’s political strategy to divide the Taiwanese.
In view of this, Taiwanese Premier Cho Jung-tai has called for tougher legal oversight of exchanges between Taiwanese politicians and mainland China, proposing legislative changes that would require officials to disclose information and contacts with Chinese political and military figures in order to better protect the island’s national security.
Rhetoric aside, an important detail emerged right at the start of Cheng’s visit, when the Kuomintang leader, who is set to challenge Lai in the 2028 presidential election, tried to project an image of herself that is not too closely aligned with Beijing.
Her visit began in Nanjing, where the Sun Yat-sen mausoleum is located. Speaking about the founder of the Republic of China, she described him as the mentor of the liberation of the “Taiwanese nation”.
This expression marked a clear departure from the Kuomintang's traditional rhetoric, historically centred on the “Chinese nation”.
Cheng instead referred to Sun Yat-sen as a key figure for all oppressed peoples, stating that for this reason he enjoys special respect among the Taiwanese.
She also linked Sun's thoughts about Taiwan's historic movements, citing Chiang Wei-shui, an activist during the Japanese colonial era, who founded the Taiwan People's Party in 1927, drawing inspiration from his Kuomintang principles and contributing ,according to Cheng, to the development of a programme for the liberation of the “Taiwanese nation”.
The BBC's Chinese edition noted that previous Kuomintang leaders who had visited Nanjing, such as Lien Chan, Wu Po-hsiung, and Hung Hsiu-chu, had always stressed in their speeches the unity of the "Chinese nation" and the historical ties between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Cheng is thus attempting to redefine Sun Yat-sen’s role, turning him from a Chinese leader into a founding figure of Taiwan as well, without excluding the possibility that the "Taiwanese nation" could be reintegrated into the "Chinese nation" in the future.
Some scholars believe that this strategy is designed to maintain a delicate balance, avoiding irritating Beijing, while seeking support among Taiwanese voters.
Still, this approach has clear limitations. In Taiwan today, collective identity is perceived more in civic and democratic terms than as belonging to a "nation" in a historical or ethnic sense.
China’s recent legislation on the “community of the Chinese nation” reinforces the idea that all groups, including Taiwanese, share a single Chinese national identity, leaving little room for recognising Taiwan’s distinct history.
Cheng Li-wun is therefore trying to walk a fine line, trying to reconcile internal and external pressures. It will be up to the Taiwanese eventually to decide whether this path is credible with an interlocutor like mainland China’s Xi Jinping.
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23/01/2023 15:38
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