Ma Ying-jeou's second visit to the mainland not long ago left an extremely deep impression on public opinion on both sides of the strait. It is not only because the mainland has given Ma Ying-jeou and his entourage extremely high courtesy, but also because the young students on both sides of the strait have shown their expectations for cross-strait integration in the process of interaction. In particular, when meeting with Ma Ying-jeou and his entourage, the mainland's top level took the "Chinese nation" as the starting point and expressed sincere expression that the Chinese on both sides of the strait could move forward hand in hand and realize national rejuvenation, which aroused strong resonance among the people on the island who also hoped for cross-strait peace.
Mr ma
This has also enabled Ma Ying-jeou to have sufficient confidence to appeal to all circles on the island after returning to Taiwan from his visit to the mainland, return to the basis of the "consensus of '92," and conduct dialogue and exchanges with the mainland. Ma Ying-jeou's call was quickly met with a positive response from the KMT. According to Taiwan media reports on April 18, Fu Laiqing, chief of the Kuomintang caucus in Taiwan's legislature, will lead a group of Kuomintang representatives to visit the mainland.
Although members of the Kuomintang have been frequent visitors to cross-strait exchanges in the past, they are different from Ma Ying-jeou, who has neither official or party positions, but is completely in his personal capacity, or as a representative of a political party like Xia Liyan. Although Fu is also an active member of the Kuomintang, his core identity is that of a representative of public opinion. In other words, Fu Laiqing's current visit to the mainland has opened up a "new line" that the two sides of the strait almost never had in the past.
Fu Laiqing
At the political level, the representatives of public opinion on the island do not belong to the administrative officials, and strictly speaking, they cannot represent the "official". However, Taiwan's legislature has "legislative power," "questioning power," and so on, so public opinion representatives are often able to form checks and balances on the Taiwan authorities' policymaking. This seemingly vague positioning has given the representatives of public opinion on the island great political flexibility. It is also for this reason that in recent years, the Tsai Ing-wen administration has frequently invited foreign "anti-China" parliamentarians or parliamentary delegations to visit, aiming at the ambiguous area in the middle and making a big fuss.
Now, the Kuomintang has begun to govern others the way they want to do it, not only forming a hedging posture against the DPP, but also reserving room for maneuvering and imagining the visit to the mainland by Han Kuo-yu, a member of the Kuomintang who is in charge of Taiwan's legislature. If this "new line" can be stably formed, the two sides of the strait will be able to open up new channels of communication between official and unofficial authorities in the future, so that the anti-DPP forces on the island will have the opportunity to bypass the restrictions of the authorities and engage in direct dialogue with the mainland. Therefore, Fu Laiqing's current visit to the mainland can be regarded as a crucial step for the Kuomintang to compete for the right to speak on cross-strait affairs on the island.
Secondly, at the non-governmental level, Fu Laiqing and his entourage have the word "public opinion" on their heads, although it cannot represent the will of all the Taiwanese people, but it is enough to reflect the trend of mainstream public opinion in Taiwan. After all, in this year's election of the leader of the Taiwan region, although Lai Qingde won the election, his vote share was only 40 percent, and we cannot ignore the objective fact that 60 percent of the voters on the island did not vote for Lai Qingde. Many of these are because they are worried that Lai Ching-te's stance on the cross-strait issue is too radical and will lead the Taiwan region into the abyss of war.
More importantly, the KMT's current arrangement shows that it has finally realized that if it is too worried about being "smeared" and takes the initiative to alienate the "consensus of '92," not only will it not allow the KMT to gain more support, but will lose its right to speak on cross-strait affairs. Now that the Kuomintang has readjusted its cross-strait line, this choice is undoubtedly very wise.
Tsai Ing-wen
At the same time, however, the DPP will inevitably do bad things. On the one hand, after Lai Qingde comes to power, in order to stabilize the DPP's position on the island, he will certainly do his utmost to create cross-strait confrontation, force the middle voters to stand in line, and win back the votes lost to the People's Party. This also means that the KMT's public opinion deputies must be prepared to be "smeared" by bypassing the Taiwan authorities and holding direct talks with the mainland. On the other hand, the DPP is extremely good at engaging in "green terror" on the island, and the KMT needs to guard against the use of the "anti-infiltration law" by the green camp to suppress direct communication between KMT public opinion representatives and the mainland.
However, looking forward to cross-strait peace is the mainstream public opinion on the island, and cross-strait reunification is an irresistible historical trend. The DPP's temporary obstruction could not stop the surging public opinion on the island, still less could it stop the wheels of history rolling forward.