Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: 武当山人/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 3.0
A PROPOSED LEGAL amendment by KMT legislator Weng Hsiao-ling would allow active or retired Taiwanese military personnel, as well as senior government officials, to sing the PRC national anthem, salute the PRC flag, and otherwise express loyalty to the PRC.
This would be accomplished by removing Article 9-3 of the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area. Weng has acquired enough signatures from other KMT legislators to make a proposal for the removal of Article 9-3, but it is unclear if the party as a whole supports the move.
Taiwan continually faces issues in which retired military personnel travel to China to meet with Chinese counterparts. Such meetings often raise espionage concerns, in that such retired military personnel may potentially leak military secrets.
But regardless of whether leaks are involved or not, during such meetings, retired military personnel may declare loyalty to the PRC or sing the PRC national anthem. These incidents are amplified for propaganda purposes, to reinforce a lack of faith in the willingness of the ROC military to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion and suggest a sense of futility in efforts at improving Taiwan’s defense.
This proves similar with regard to efforts by China to win over active duty military personnel. Apart from that active-duty military personnel are also induced to leak military secrets, United Front efforts directed at active-duty military personnel have often required them to film videos in which they state that they would surrender immediately in the event of a Chinese invasion. This would be a means of furthering a lack of faith in the Taiwanese military.
Photo credit: FormalDude/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 4.0
Given such repeated incidents, the DPP has sought to penalize cases of active or retired military personnel going to China to sing the Chinese national anthem or perform such acts. Apart from emphasizing that this is treason, the DPP has sought to increase penalties for such acts, such as stripping away the generous pensions that military personnel received from the KMT during the authoritarian era as a reward for political loyalty and depend on in retirement.
Previously, the penalties that such former or active duty military personnel received were a slap on the wrist. This was part of what contributed to such incidents continuing to occur.
Yet clearly this has become a flashpoint between the DPP and the KMT, which is why Weng has made a proposal aimed at protecting the ability of military personnel to make a declaration of allegiance to the PRC. This is in line with Weng’s viewpoints, with Weng having previously made public statements to the effect that Taiwanese are all Chinese.
It is probably because the DPP has called for strengthening such penalties in recent times that Weng has made this proposal. But, ironically enough, the KMT has increasingly leaned into narratives that question the strength and reliability of Taiwan’s military, even if the military has traditionally been a demographic that backed the KMT. As such, the KMT has questioned the utility of raising Taiwan’s budget for defense, as well as targeted initiatives such as the domestic submarine program.
Consequently, in recent years, the DPP has been the political party in Taiwan that has sought to defend the prestige of the military. This proves ironic, seeing as the DPP was historically suspicious of the military in light of the fact that the military had served as the enforcer of the KMT’s rule during authoritarian times.
Regardless, Weng is probably aiming to appeal to deep blues in the KMT with her legislative proposal–or perhaps to China. It is less clear how such proposals will resonate with the general public. After all, it is possible that the proposal simply reinforces the public image of the KMT as altogether too willing to sell out Taiwan’s national interests to China. Even if the KMT has historically framed itself as the only political party in Taiwan able to communicate with the CCP and, in this way, maintain stable cross-strait relations as its justification for why it should be the only party in Taiwan to retain political power, the public may not take kindly to actions perceived as selling out Taiwan either.