Wang Materializes in Front of the LY

Banyan Q3. Are there differing opinions of the TiSA within the Kuomintang?
President Ma: The KMT holds a unanimous view internally but differs greatly from the opposition.

Well well. Eventful day as Speaker of the Legislature and KMT heavyweight Wang Jin-pyng showed up at the Legislative Yuan today to talk to the students. Taiwan Voice sent this around Facebook:

Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng takes humble approach, shakes students' hands, Lin Fei-fan and students warmly receive Wang's goodwill.

Arriving at the legislature, LY President Wang made remarks in front of building, apologizing for the disruption that ensued as a result of the Cross Strait Services Trade Agreement. He said that he will face these problems squarely and not avoid them, making a promise that "for now" there will be no review of the agreement. Wang made a last request for the students to end the occupation.

He then went inside the legislative chambers, shaking the students' hands and asking for their well-being. He also thanked the medical staff that have been taking care of the students all along.

Lin Fei-fan, representing the students, said that in their 20 days of occupying the legislature, this is the first time they have seen some goodwill gestures. His response was welcoming, but he stood firm on the purpose of their movement.

"We have seen and we have heard [Wang's goodwill], but we would like to emphasize our position on first passing the bill to monitor cross strait agreements, the citizen's version, and then we can review the agreement," Lin said.

In regards to leaving the legislative chambers and end the occupation, Lin said they will hold a meeting for about an hour and then give a response on that issue.

LY President Wang plays a key role in resolving this stalemate, but he must show that he intends to stick to his promise of not reviewing the agreement for now and respecting the students' opinion. His attitude and approach, however, is different from President Ma Ying-jeou and Premier Jiang Yi-hua, both having shown no intentions in negotiating with the students and advocating their removal through force.

With Wang was DPP Whip Ker, who, readers may recall, was the man Wang called allegedly to assure him that his case had been fixed with the prosecutor's office, the phone call that sent Ma Ying-jeou haring off after Wang Jin-pyng's hide.

Before Wang met with the students -- thus separating himself from Ma, who is looking more and more like Saruman barricaded inside The Orthanc as the Ents smash it to pieces -- he went out and held a press conference. Bloomberg says:

Taiwan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng said he will halt a lawmakers’ review of a trade pact with China until an oversight bill passes, in a concession to students who have occupied the legislature for 20 days over the deal.

Once again, Wang opts for delay. Immediately the Foxconn CEO came out in support of Wang's move. KMT caucus leader Lin Hung-chi responded by declaring that Wang's position left him in "great shock". The order to say this apparently came down from above, since Lin was with Wang when he made the announcement and later in the chamber. Clearly Wang is now (again) in the middle of a public split with the party leadership and on its face, with the party caucus. Notwithstanding this, caucus leaders all went into the chamber with Wang. Do you think they didn't agree beforehand on what would be said and how and to who?

Make of that what you will. Perhaps Wang knows that his support base within the party is large. As several longtime observers pointed out, Wang can't be doing this alone. This incident shows starkly how much power Ma has since he controls party resources and who can run for party seats: only Wang is openly defying him. But Wang's defiance may signal a massive split within the KMT...

....or else simple monkey-wrench-in-the-works defiance for its own sake, since Ma spat on him and rejected him. Who can tell?

These ostensible splits between Wang, Ma, the Taiwanese legislators, and the party Old Guard (where are they?) appear whenever anyone puts pressure on the KMT. What's new here is the openly public nature of the split, and the intensity of it. A longtime observer pointed out that Ma is scheduled to teleconference with CSIS on Apr 9th. Ma will not accept any questions that have not been approved prior to the interview, so don't expect too much, it will look and taste like Banyan's interview of Ma for The Economist.

Or perhaps it is the KMT playing eleven-dimensional chess with all of us.

As for the oversight bill, it is set up so that if there is a delay in ratification of future pacts, they become law. LOL.

Meanwhile...
If the trade pact is so awesome, why do its supporters consistently claim that Taiwan must sacrifice to make headway? This, very subtly, emphasizes that the pact is the dog its opponents say it is. Letters from Taiwan observes in a brilliant piece:

Back to the dental market, the CSSTA is potentially a great threat to the business I work for. That threat is now generating a sense of fatalism amongst Taiwanese distributors. If Chinese companies start to invest in or buy Taiwanese device distributors, international suppliers will shift their communication to the Chinese companies and Taiwanese distributors will become only ‘local sub-dealers’. The contracts we enjoy with our international partners today may be reformulated so that we can no longer directly communicate with them as partners but have to take direction from Chinese distributors who have been awarded contracts to manage the ‘Greater China Area’. If China can convince these suppliers that they can manage distribution in Taiwan as a ‘local area’ in their business chain, Taiwanese businesses will lose their economic sovereignty and be forced to accept terms of business from Chinese companies if they want the rights to distribute products in their own country. And President Ma, through ECFA, CSSTA, and planned CSGTA, is encouraging this trend. That is very bad news for independent Taiwanese distributors, and ultimately, for Taiwanese dentists.

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Daily Links:

• Ham-handed MOFA strikes again: Polish media asked to retract story. Don't they realize how stupid they look?
• For amusement purposes only: In the Taipei Times, John Copper explains why the students are protesting. Bad in every way. 
• J Michael rips a certain powerful representative office
• A Chinese student describes studying Taiwan History at SOAS
• Taiwan and Hong Kong should influence China, not vice versa
• Taiwan's thaw with China turning to slush
• Taiwan erects artificial reefs from old boats, Chinese scavenge them. 
• US expresses support for Taiwan's entry into the TPP
• Useful: Roundtable of Taiwan financial leaders discussing China stuff

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