Caitlin Moran on Xi, the KMT’s Cheng Li-wun, Taiwan’s democracy, and the uncomfortable truth about peace overtures
By Caitlin Moran for Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat.
Tuesday. Xi met the KMT. Taiwan’s ruling party is worried. I have breakfast opinions about all of it.
Xi Jinping met with the Kuomintang leader Cheng Li-wun and they agreed to “pursue peace,” which sounds marvellous until you read the next sentence, which is that Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party is worried this will enable Beijing to undermine its democracy. And here is where I have to be honest about a thing that is not comfortable: the pursuit of peace can sometimes be used as a mechanism for the erosion of the thing being protected, and the people being asked to relax about it are sometimes the ones who will lose something if they do.
This is also what I have observed at work, in relationships, and in every meeting where someone very calm and senior has said “let’s just explore all options” about a situation where one of the options is that I lose my column. I do not trust “let’s just explore all options” as a neutral statement. Neither does Taiwan’s DPP. We have both been around.
On the Discomfort of Being Right
The KMT has historical ties to the mainland that the DPP does not. This makes the meeting either a bridge or a back channel, depending on who is describing it and what they are hoping for. Per NPR: “Xi and the KMT’s Cheng Li-wun agreed to pursue peace, but Taiwan’s ruling party worries it will enable Beijing to undermine its democracy.” I read this and felt a very specific political tiredness that I have also felt watching Labour negotiate things. The peace can be used. The peace has been used before. That is the uncomfortable part of wanting it.
According to The Guardian’s Taiwan coverage, the situation requires careful navigation. I had three sausages and navigated my own situation carefully. Both remained unresolved by lunch.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
