Jottings from the Granite Studio

Historian Chen Yi-shen from the Academica Sinica has an op-ed piece translated in this morning’s Taipei Times.

Chen argues:

As a historian, it is not difficult to see that the source of the problem lies in the handling of the post-war Treaty of Peace with Japan. This theory of indetermination continues to have a proactive side in that it denies Beijing’s staunch assertion that Taiwan is part of China’s territory.

However, there is the added difficulty from within: For KMT individuals like former chairman Lien Chan (連戰), the position of sovereignty is obviously more important to the Chinese Communist Party and further from the DPP.

In 2005, when Beijing passed its “Anti-Secession” Law, Lien and People First Party Chairman James Song (宋楚瑜) gladly visited China as though it were a long-lost friend, behavior that I strongly criticized.

Faced with a pan-blue majority legislature, Chen was unable to pass the special legislation needed to implement transitional justice as budget requirements were boycotted.

The so-called “green rule” produced some results, but on the whole, is exiting in the awkward position of a mock of a government.

Between 2004 and last year, I noted that as a limbo state with diametrically opposed political factions, the DPP can only be a mock simulation of a government, and that Chen abandoned the middle road due to personal crisis, thus losing the political high ground and leading the pro-localization camp down a narrow path of struggling for survival.

The former is due to political and historical factors, while the latter is the result of cultural and societal issues. To end this state of limbo and mock governance, the future president must discover apt solutions.