On the afternoon of April 10, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, met with Ma Ying-jeou and his party in Beijing. (Xinhua News Agency)
Straight News: We have seen that General Secretary Xi Jinping's meeting with Ma Ying-jeou and his entourage yesterday triggered a strong reaction on the island, and at present, Ma Ying-jeou and his entourage have returned to Taipei from their visit to the mainland, what is your observation on this?
Special Commentator Liu Heping: Actually, the DPP, especially the meeting between Xi Jinping and Ma Ying-jeou yesterday, is picking on all kinds of things with a magnifying glass. However, what the DPP and the green camp media did not expect was that yesterday the mainland side shattered their glasses about the details of the meeting.
Before this meeting, the green camp media widely speculated that General Secretary Xi Jinping would meet Ma Ying-jeou in the Fujian Hall or Taiwan Hall of the Great Hall of the People, and preconceived that this was a political "dwarfing" act, but the final meeting venue was arranged in the high-end and high-grade East Hall of the Great Hall of the People.
In addition, in terms of the seating arrangements at yesterday's meeting, the attendees from the mainland side and the delegation brought by Ma Ying-jeou were still lined up on both sides of the rectangular table. Therefore, I would like to stress once again that the meticulous arrangement of these details is not only a courtesy to Ma Ying-jeou personally, but also a courtesy to Taiwan, which undoubtedly once again shows that the mainland is handling the Taiwan issue with dignity, respect, and equality. This has undoubtedly opened up a completely new space for imagination for the mainland to handle cross-strait relations, especially the issue of political positioning in handling cross-strait relations.
I think it is precisely for this reason that those green camp media who can't find bones in eggs will have a slight sour taste in today's reports and comments.
Straight News: In addition to emphasizing that both sides of the strait belong to the same country, General Secretary Xi Jinping also emphasized the fact that both sides of the strait belong to the Chinese nation. What do you think about this?
Special Commentator Liu Heping: I think that given that Ma Ying-jeou has not only adhered to the "'92 Consensus" along the way, but also recalled the "original '92 Consensus" during his meeting with General Secretary Xi Jinping yesterday, General Secretary Xi Jinping's statement that "both sides of the strait belong to the same country" can undoubtedly be seen as a response to and respect for Mr. Ma Ying-jeou's cross-strait political stance.
Next, General Secretary Xi Jinping focused his speech on the statement that "both sides of the strait belong to the Chinese nation", not only highly affirming Mr. Ma Ying-jeou's feelings for his family and country, but also emphasizing the fact that "the strait cannot stop the family relationship between the two sides of the strait, and cannot change the fact that the two sides of the strait are the same nation". Personally, I believe that this statement by General Secretary Xi Jinping is absolutely not just to simply bring the people on both sides of the strait closer together, but to seek common ground while reserving differences, to find a greater common divisor acceptable to everyone on both sides of the strait and the major political forces on both sides of the strait. This greater common denominator is the Chinese nation, which transcends the different political stances, political systems, and ideologies of the two sides of the strait, as well as the common blood and culture of the Chinese nation.
This is because over the past few years, although the mainland has constantly emphasized the coexistence and co-prosperity of the two political stances, political systems, and ideologies, some political forces headed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have been holding on to the political differences between the two sides of the strait and are constantly amplifying the differences in this regard. It is in this context that General Secretary Xi Jinping, when he met with Ma Ying-jeou yesterday, raised and emphasized this greater common divisor between the two sides of the strait.
In my personal opinion, General Secretary Xi Jinping's remarks are not mainly addressed to the people in the blue camp who have no objections to the common feelings of the family and country on both sides of the strait, but to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has been constantly engaged in so-called "cultural Taiwan independence" in recent years and attempted to sever cross-strait cultural and blood ties, especially to the "Taiwan independence" forces.
Haven't you Tsai Ing-wen, Lai Ching-de, and the DPP authorities been worried about cross-strait war all these years and have not been able to find a way out of the predicament, and here we will point out a way out for you, that is, the first step is not to engage in any kind of "cultural Taiwan independence," first to recognize the basic fact that the two sides of the strait share a common culture, blood kinship, and common nation, and then use this as a springboard to transition from cultural identity, blood identity, and national identity to the next step of political identity, that is, to recognize that both sides of the strait belong to the same country. In this way, the logical exposition of cross-strait peace that "the Chinese do not fight the Chinese, and the Taiwanese are also Chinese" can be established.
Straight News: In your opinion, in the face of General Secretary Xi Jinping's expositions and calls for emphasizing that both sides of the strait belong to the Chinese nation, how will Lai Qingde, who is about to come to power, respond?
Special Commentator Liu Heping: I think that after the second "landing" visit, it is very likely that Ma Ying-jeou's "landing" visit will be normalized in the future. This also means that Ma Ying-jeou has replaced the aging Mr. Lien Chan and has become a leading figure on the island in promoting cross-strait nongovernmental communication and exchanges. Under the circumstance that all official and semi-official channels of communication between the two sides of the strait have been completely cut off, this move is undoubtedly of great significance, and can play the role of a lubricant to a considerable extent and reduce the political and military antagonism between the two sides of the strait.
However, it has to be said that after all, Ma Ying-jeou, who has retired, has neither a party position nor a public office, and his promotion of cross-strait relations is limited to the cultural, economic, trade, and personnel exchanges of the people, and in many cases he is limited to issuing his own appeals, which cannot really play a role in turning the tide in cross-strait relations. At the same time, in view of the fact that the bell must be tied to the bell and that he can only seek government in his position, the next person who can really solve the cross-strait dilemma on the island is Lai Qingde, who is about to succeed Tsai Ing-wen.
So whether Lai Qingde will first return to the big roof of "both sides of the strait belong to the Chinese nation" and "one family on both sides of the strait" to send a signal of relaxation to the mainland depends on his inaugural speech on 20 May. If Lai Qingde had stopped repeating the old tune that "the two sides of the strait are not subordinate to each other" in his inaugural speech, but had been willing to respond to the mainland's exposition that "both sides of the strait belong to the Chinese nation" and that "both sides of the strait are one family," then cross-strait relations might have been truly eased from the cloudy state.
Author丨Liu Heping, special commentator of Shenzhen Satellite TV's "Live Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan".