Remember when Chen Shui-bian was Mad Chen, and war was just around the corner? Luckily we have the more rational Ma Ying-jeou Administration in power, eh? The Taipei Times reports on our nutcase legislators and their naive Premier:
Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said yesterday he would not rule out going to war with Japan if Taipei and Tokyo fail to resolve the dispute over the Diaoyutai (釣魚台) islands triggered by Tuesday’s collision between a Taiwanese fishing boat and a Japanese patrol vessel. “I believe declaration of war is the last option to resolve controversies between two nations,” Liu said when fielding repeated questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Ken-te (陳根德) on the floor of the legislature about whether the Cabinet was ready for a war with Japan.
Liu made the comment after being repeatedly asked if he had not ruled out war as an option in the dispute.
Later in an interpellation session with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅), the premier elaborated on his remark, saying that war would be the last choice if all peaceful means were in vain.
The premier knows that idea of war is ridiculous, but that word should never have crossed his lips. Yet can you imagine what the reaction would have been if a premier in the DPP government had made similar remarks?
People claimed the DPP is "ideological" and the KMT "pragmatic." Sorry, but the evidence so far is clear that in its foreign policy the KMT is more bombastic, more rigid, and more provincial than the DPP ever was. If Ma really wants to bargain with China from a position of strength, he'll need the support of Japan. Yet so far within a month of swearing in, Ma's Administration has twice been offensive toward Japan. heck, if they were really clever, they'd hand the Diaoyutai over the Japanese, leaving a permanent irritant in the Japan-China relationship....
The Japanese behaved with forebearance, but an interesting tidbit is that a lower-ranking official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave an order to the Coast Guard to keep its vessels out of the islands -- without having any authority to do so.
[Japan] [Taiwan]
Good thing they didn't say anything about someone from the opposition party mentioning "martial law" instead! [/snark]
ReplyDeleteRemember how "incompetent" they constantly claimed the DPP administration was?
我快活不下去了啦!!!!!1!!1!
Tim Maddog
Oh, yeah -- the MOFA guy (Peter Tsai [蔡明耀]) is probably being made into another scapegoat like Yu Wen (余文), who took the fall in Ma Ying-jeou's special allowance fund.
ReplyDeleteTim Maddog
Does anyone know what happened to Ma? I'm guessing he's suffering from depression or is having confidence problems. Could it be family problems? Can anyone confirm? He's completely disappeared from public political discourse, and so many big political events have happened from oil prices, to Japan's coast guard/navy ramming a Taiwanese fishing boat, to a whole bunch of officials having green cards, to flooding, to fertilizer prices jumping, to the stock market falling over 10%... he's said almost nothing...
ReplyDeleteIt's really amazing the contrast. When he was mayor, every single time there were reporters waiting for him to give his opinion on something, he'd stop and give his opinion. He's made almost no statements to the media...
It's so weird. I keep looking for clues in the media, but I can't figure it out. Anyone know?
Yes, Ma really has disappeared. I was going to blog on that too. I think because when he was Mayor he was also KMT chair for a while, so got double whammy with people seeking answers.
ReplyDeleteBut the flip side of it is -- who is in the limelight? Nobody seems at the center of things. Chen knew about the power of gesture and bravura -- Ma doesn't seem to have grasped that yet. I think his handlers are facing unprecedented pressure.
Michael
My fear is that Ma actually doesn't care much about how Japan feels. In his generation, they hate the Japanese and regard themselves as Chinese.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people say Ma's weak and clueless and hasn't got a firm cross straight strategy. Actually, I think he has a very clear aim - achieving the reunification. He's now as good as having surrendered the 'one china' policy and therefore probably doesn't care much about the Japanese link anymore.
The closest model to Taiwan President plus primer system in the US is the city mayor plus city manager system. If you look at the US one, you will realize that's how things suppose to run. Let me know if I am wrong.
ReplyDeleteOf course Mr Ma has disappeard. It's not like he is still president.
ReplyDeleteThe Japanese behaved with forebearance, but an interesting tidbit is that a lower-ranking official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave an order to the Coast Guard to keep its vessels out of the islands -- without having any authority to do so.
ReplyDeletePlease do some researches on who appointed him, and who created his division (a special division on dealing with Japan). You will be pleasantly (or unpleasantly) surprised. Now, you know how bad Taiwan's previous administration has screwed up the rule and order of the government. I though Bush has done a good job in the US, I guess Chen made him look like an amateur.
ma and the kmt can't keep blaming the dpp for things like this. there are only two possibilities: 1) ma was informed of the incident and made the call to retreat the vessel or 2) ma wasn't informed and this was a disaster in terms of command and control over taiwan's military by the new administartion! what if that was the beginning of a chinese invasion (much more serious), but would ma simply either back off or not even know about it? either way, this looks really, really bad for ma. and he's only now wiping his ass only after the legislature, kmt and dpp both, rammed him real hard.
ReplyDeletebtw, arty is mimicking the style and phrases of other commenters. kind of funny, except he isn't doing it on purpose.