Washington Times: Ma Wants Peace

Ma's visit in the Washington Times from Xin Li. The article's slant lies in its absence -- none of Ma's claims are challenged or explored. David at jujuflop has already pointed out that Ma's plan is a lot like Chen Shui-bian's, except that Chen didn't advocate a 30 year long capitulation to the Chinese. The article also refers to "Taiwan's Nationalists," although the KMT is the Chinese Nationalist Party.

The United States "always encourages us to open dialogue with the mainland," said Mr. Ma. "We don't want to be the flash point in East Asia anymore."
Mr. Ma offered no new hope for progress on a proposed $18 billion arms sale to Taiwan, which the Nationalists have been holding up in the island's legislature since it was approved by President Bush in 2001.
The delay is partly because of the failure of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party to provide adequate information, he said yesterday.
The Nationalist Party "is not blocking the deal" and will support reasonable arms purchases from the United States, he said.
He said the determination of what is reasonable should be based on a comprehensive evaluation of Taiwan's defense needs, its relationship with China, public opinion and Taiwan's financial capabilities.

The result of not challenging any of Ma's statements is of course, obvious. The writer is either not aware that Ma's party has blocked the arms bill more than 45 times (not competent) or has suppressed the information (biased). Another particularly bad moment is here:

The United States "always encourages us to open dialogue with the mainland," said Mr. Ma. "We don't want to be the flash point in East Asia anymore."

Ma's statement goes unexplored, sadly. The writer does not mention that the DPP would love to negotiate with the Chinese, but that China will not talk to them. This leaves the impression that the DPP is somehow unreasonable, when in fact it is the Chinese who are unreasonable. All sides in Taiwan want to open a dialogue with the mainland.

The outlines of Ma's post 2008 strategy are already clear -- victory over the DPP, then a triumphant visit to China, in which they strike a deal that will deliver Taiwan to China in a much shorter period than 30 years. Ma must know as well as anyone else that another generation out of China's embrace will only strengthen the Taiwan identity. As a pro-annexation politician, he cannot seriously support another three decades of Taiwan independence. Therefore the whole thing has to be nonsense.

On the whole the article is generous to Ma, but it is not overly fawning. So perhaps things aren't going to be as bad as I thought. However, the title -- Opposition Leader Seeks Long-Term Peace -- is blatantly slanted: the DPP wants a long-term peace too; but they want it on terms of democracy and independence, something that the Chinese and the KMT do not want.

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