by Brian Hioe

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Photo Credit: Ma Ying-jeou/Facebook

FORMER PRESIDENT MA YING-JEOU has again lashed out at current president Lai Ching-te. Comments by Ma were made at a speech in Thailand, during the 27th “Zhongshan Lecture” held by the Chinese Association of Thailand earlier this month.

Ma’s comments framed Lai Ching-te as advocating a two-state theory in terms of political relations between Taiwan and China. Ma’s claim centers around Lai Ching-te stating in his inaugural address that the ROC and PRC are not subordinate to each other.

Indeed, Lai’s statement is not incorrect. Neither the ROC nor the PRC are exactly split-off states from each other, but both trace their history back to Republican China. To this extent, the PRC has never controlled Taiwan. The PRC’s claims to Taiwan largely originate from Qing imperial China. In spite of the CCP originating in the political forces that overthrew the Qing dynasty, the PRC largely claims the territorial borders of the Qing dynasty as its own.

This is not the first time that Ma has tried to frame Lai as dangerously pro-independence in this way. In July, Ma hit out at Lai with an essay on Facebook, framing Lai’s inaugural speech as a two-state theory in terms of how it framed the historical and political relationship between Taiwan and China.

In this essay, Ma framed Lai as a loose cannon, framing Lai’s inaugural address as being overly provocative and, in this way, having walked back by the Mainland Affairs Council after. This was also suggesting a lack of coordination in different parts of the Lai administration with regard to the aftermath of the Lai inauguration.

In his comments in Thailand, however, Ma went on to frame arms purchases from the US as dangerous and a sink of financial resources for Taiwan. Ma specifically cited comments by former US president Donald Trump stating that Taiwan should pay the US for its defense in order to assert this, suggesting the overall futility of relying on the US for defense, and that the US would never be a reliable ally.

Ma Ying-jeou speaking in Thailand. Photo credit: Ma Ying-jeou/Facebook

In this sense, one can see to what extent Ma’s views reflect the US-skepticism that has set in among the pan-Blue camp. Arms purchases from the US are framed as pointless and an example of the US foisting unwanted, even dangerous arms onto Taiwan in order to financially benefit. The KMT has tried to depict other efforts by the US to signal support of Taiwan, such as vaccine donations of AstraZeneca during the COVID-19 pandemic, as being also an effort at foisting unwanted goods onto Taiwan.

Ma’s solution, then, was to argue that Taiwan embraces Chinese history and culture as the bedrock for stable relations between Taiwan and China. Ma framed the Lai administration as revisionist, in that Lai administration officials have referred to the Yellow Emperor as being a historical myth.

This is in line with how the KMT has sought to frame the Lai administration as intent on a cultural project of “desinicization,” something that it depicts as part of the DPP and pan-Green camp’s broader project of “cultural Taiwanese independence”. One, too, is reminded of how the “Anti-War Working Group”, consisting of leftist intellectuals that embraced claims that the DPP was the one provoking China, similarly also claimed that if Taiwan embraced Chinese culture, China would drop threats directed at Taiwan–never mind that this would be to put ideology before material conditions, as though the former determined the latter.

It is unsurprising that the DPP has criticized Ma’s comments as a form of appeasement. Yet it may be worth examining how Ma’s comments are intended to sway views in Taiwan, as well as influencing international perceptions of Lai. Ma’s comments may be aimed at influencing views within the KMT as well, with Ma having intervened at strategic moments to ensure that the KMT continues to adhere to the 1992 Consensus–something that he may view as his political legacy, despite attempts by successive KMT chairs as Eric Chu and Johnny Chiang to distance themselves from it, and initial hesitancy by 2024 KMT presidential candidate Hou You-yi to embrace the 1992 Consensus.
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