Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Cho Jung-tai/Facebook
THE KMT AND TPP have hit out at a visit to Japan by Premier Cho Jung-tai to watch a game at the World Baseball Classic (WBC). Taiwan defeated regional rival South Korea for the first time in history at the WBC game, advancing Taiwan to the next round of competition.
In particular, the two pan-Blue parties allege that Cho’s actions were a waste of public expenditure, in that Cho chartered an Airbus A321neo operated by China Airlines to make the trip. The plane departed from the Songshan Base Command’s VIP ramp, having been parked at Songshan International Airport before making the trip.
For his part, Cho has stated that the visit was a personal trip, conducted at his own expense on a day off. The KMT has lashed out at the DPP to continue to allege that the trip was paid for by the government, suggesting that the DPP’s narrative about an impact to government operations due to budget cuts is untrue if the government can apparently afford a trip to Japan by Cho. The KMT also suggested that the DPP government had done little to aid Taiwanese stranded in the Middle East amidst rising tensions in the region, chartering a plane for Cho to fly to Japan instead of chartering planes for Taiwanese nationals there.
At the same time, the KMT and TPP would be hitting out at the fact that Cho’s visit broke diplomatic precedent. Cho’s trip to Japan for the WBC was conducted under the auspices of a private trip to watch a baseball game, but also the first time that a Taiwanese premier had visited Japan since Taiwan and Japan ended formal diplomatic ties in 1972. Though You Si-kun stopped in Okinawa in 2004, this was not a planned trip, as this was instead an emergency stopover caused by a typhoon. You was returning from a trip to Central America to visit diplomatic allies of Taiwan there.
The trip, then, is seen as a sign of warming ties between Japan and Taiwan under the governance of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Takaichi provoked blowback from China last year after stating, when questioned in the Diet, that an invasion of Taiwan by China would constitute a survival-threatening situation for Japan. Previously, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung visited Japan last year, conducting the visit quietly so as to avoid blowback from China. Likewise, when Tsai Ing-wen’s vice president, Lai Ching-te visited Japan for the funeral of assassinated former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe. Takaichi continues to be seen as supportive of Taiwan, having refused to back down from her comments in spite of strong reactions from China.
Cho’s trip to Japan continues the precedent of low-key diplomatic visits by Taiwanese government officials, then, sometimes conducted under the pretext of personal travel. Past visits to Europe by Joseph Wu, during his tenure as Minister of Foreign Affairs, were also conducted in this manner. Low-key visits conducted in this manner are a way of minimizing the window for China to react.
China has become increasingly threatening toward diplomatic trips by Taiwanese government officials. Last year, it emerged that China’s military attache in Prague had planned to crash a car into the motorcade of Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim in March 2024 during a trip by her there. China also claims that it is conducting an investigation into DPP legislator Puma Shen–a leading voice when it comes to civil defense initiatives and disinformation research–and that it would seek to arrest him through Interpol, though Interpol has stated that it will not arrest Shen for political reasons.
It is to be seen if China will again hit out at such diplomatic visits by Taiwanese government officials in a manner similar to the planned Prague motorcade crash, or if it will simply publicly condemn such trips. Certainly, China condemned Cho’s visit to Japan, claiming that his visit to the WBC was for the sake of promoting Taiwanese independence.