Unlike Romania, which for inexplicable reasons moved the presidential elections from the parliamentary ones in 2008-2009 (as usual, the thought in the heads of some consulting guys), thus creating complications and additional costs with zero benefit in terms of governance, in Taiwan they are held simultaneously this Saturday. This is probably the most important election in the world in the first half of the year, as it takes place in a tense security situation and, depending on the outcome, could intensify the geopolitical rivalry between the world’s two great powers, the US and the US. The People’s Republic of China (PRC; Russia) lost this status long ago, regressing to the position of a huge North Korea, with oil and gas).

This is a completely unusual election, because the Republic of China (Taiwan’s official name), the only one of the two democratic and prosperous countries, is not recognized by the rest of the world, which, fearing constant problems and threats from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), perpetuate the diplomatic fiction “one China“. There is actually a difference of oriental subtlety between (1) “the one China principle“, i.e., the position of the Communists in Beijing that Taiwan belongs to the PRC, with the CCP leading the way, and (2) “one China policy» is practiced by the US and other Western countries, which recognize that Beijing follows the official line (1), but declare themselves agnostic and impartial about the validity of this statement, without necessarily wanting to clarify the situation. The studied ambiguity of this status quo is what has allowed Taiwan to democratize and develop spectacularly economically.

If we understand this difference between 1 and 2, we can now enjoy a little childish play by CCP diplomats who write manipulative texts and want to trick Western politicians into signing documents by including “the one China principle“; and the latter pretend not to understand and give answers based on “one China policy“. On the other hand, the press and commentators often criticize the Communist Party, confusing the wording with one another, like more ignorant politicians from Eastern Europe.

This division of the thread into four seems like unnecessary madness, but without it it is difficult to understand the line-up of political actors in Taipei for the January 13 election. Relations with China have always been at the center of the political struggle in Taiwan, but everything is done with a dose of surrealism and ambiguity. The Kuomintang Party, the historical opponent of the Communists, lost the fight against them in 1949 and found refuge in Taiwan, bringing with it the ruling class from the mainland, the Mandarin language of the North and a model of capitalist development under dictatorship. The Kuomintang line today is still a political fiction, namely that there is only one China, but that it should be ruled by them, not the Communists, and that dialogue and trade relations with the PRC must continue.

However, with the democratization of the past three decades, new political forces have emerged, such as the current ruling Progressive Democratic Party (PPD). He gathers more votes from the indigenous population of the island, who lived here before the landing of the mainland army of the Kuomintang. They are still the majority today, speak a language other than Beijing Mandarin, and have a different culture. This part of society and the party that represents it do not feel much connected to mainland China, especially given the disgusting political regime there, so they see no reason to repeat the “one China” fiction. Just openly declaring independence could provoke an invasion by a huge communist army, so the PPD, the party of current President Tsai, follows the genius line of “we’re already de facto independent, and we’re doing better than them anyway.” , so it doesn’t make sense to officially declare something that already exists just to stir the water.”

In the January 13 election, Xi Jinping’s regime would obviously prefer a Kuomintang victory, so it has veiled threats of unspecified repression in the event of a victory for the PPD representative, the country’s current vice president, whom it considers a “separatist.” In the historic rift between the two parties, new political players have emerged, such as the People’s Party (NP), led by a surgeon and former mayor of Taipei. They represent themselves, a somewhat worn out cliché, which we also know as the “third way”. Not necessarily with communist China, but still closer to it than the current government: let’s agree with them so that things are good, not bad, let’s not provoke them – and fundamentally, let’s deal with our internal problems, not geopolitical ones, for example, high housing prices. , employment crisis, pension system, etc. This is what made the PP a popular party among young people who, born and raised in a democracy after the reforms of the 80s, do not understand why they should care about the dusty history and political ideas of a generation. boomersthat is, what happened in 1949 and who did what and to whom during the dictatorship thereafter.

Simply, you see, if you are no longer interested in the Communist Party, it does not mean that you are no longer interested in it. Beijing’s ideologically-imperialist paranoia, which is growing stronger as the Xi Jinping regime falters economically, cannot be fooled by such tricks. Any shift of attention from geopolitics to issues of internal governance in Taiwan is also interpreted as a counter-revolutionary attempt to undermine “the one China principle” because, in the party’s view, there can be no more important priority than unification, and strengthening governance and prosperity in Taiwan is seen as sabotaging the union and strengthening the island’s independence.

Trying in every way to clientelize the business elites of the island (there are large investments by companies from Taiwan in communist China), to threaten political steps towards independence, to bully the society “one country, two systems” model (completely discredited after seeing what happened in Hong Kong, where dissidents were exiled or jailed and the rule of law with an independent judiciary was destroyed just a few years after the annexation), and to launch cyberattacks and trolling in the free speech space from Taiwan, the Chinese Communist Party will not stop there if it feels that the divergence between Beijing and Taipei continues, and the PRC is losing speed. _ Read the rest of the article and comment on Contributors.ro