Liu Kuangyu Assistant Researcher of the Taiwan Research Institute of the Academy of Social Sciences
Every time a Taiwanese leader "transits" the United States, he likes to exaggerate "being treated with courtesy". Compared with his exes in a light and dark way, he raises his value by "export to domestic sales" and competes to compare the "friendliness" of Taiwan-US relations during his tenure. It was the election year, and the Tsai administration's visit this time made a name for nothing and “seeing the big from the small” political operation became more explicit, but once again exposed its limited political pattern and the lack of authenticity in the "upgrading of US-Taiwan relations".
Tsai Ing-wen "transits" the United States
Self-deception of the edge
Based on the "one China policy", relevant laws and the "unofficial" nature of US-Taiwan relations, the US State Department has a set of "self-restrictions" administrative guidelines for its exchanges with the Taiwan authorities at all levels, and has long imposed formal depoliticized restrictions on the activities of Taiwan leaders in the United States. Therefore, Tsai Ing-wen has long been preparing to take advantage of the "westerly wind" of the "Distribution Law" of "Taiwan", plan to visit the Eastern US political city, and even enter the White House, and Congress, meet with senior US officials, and strive to treat it with "head of the head of state". However, Tsai was unable to get what he wanted in the end and could only "condescend" to visit Los Angeles and other places with the second-level political significance, and did not wait for the fantasy White House red carpet and 21 salute . Despite this, the Cai camp still instructed the media he controlled to vigorously exaggerate that his trip had three major "breakthroughs". But to put it bluntly, these so-called "breakthroughs" are to be nice, "political edge balls" have been forced to be "upgrade", but to put it bluntly, they are completely self-deception and stealing the bell.
First of all, deliberately distort the political positioning of this trip to cover up the futile embarrassment. The Tsai administration never mentioned that it had failed to actively fight for the United States to transit New York. Los Angeles was just a second choice, and did not admit that the treatment he received during this trip was generally maintained at the previous level. The adjustment of details did not reflect the "Discussion Law with Taiwan" or "U.S.-Taiwan relations upgraded", but instead vigorously exaggerated the "being treated with courtesy", which made the "independence" elder Lin Zhuoshui also scolded Tsai for being proud of being treated second to the 'director-level'.
Tsai Ing-wen
Secondly, distort the "previous example" into the "first example" to exaggerate the political effect of "transit". Many "firsts" that the Tsai camp vigorously exaggerated were realized in the period when Ma Ying-jeou, where cross-strait relations were smooth. In fact, what really made a "breakthrough" in this trip was to spend tens of millions of public funds to hold a 1000-person flowing seat overseas, entertain the expatriates who supported the green camp, wave the DPP flag of the audience, and use the overseas "Taiwan independence dream" to boost the bleak election situation on the island.
The old drama of "Kaizi Diplomacy"
After the "Distribution Law with Taiwan" was lifted from the ban on "officials at all levels in Taiwan" to visit government agencies at all levels in the United States, the reality is that the US will still "comprehensive coordination and calculation" and reflect "politeness" within an appropriate scope; while the Tsai administration can only dig its mind to test on the edge, which shows the lack of qualities behind the "upgraded US-Taiwan relations".
Tsai Ing-wen
In fact, the relevant norms of the US exchanges with Taiwan will be adjusted dynamically year by year with the regional situation and Sino-US relations. For example, before Trump signed the "2019 Fiscal Year National Defense Authorization Act", the official website of the US State Department successively withdrew the "National Flag of the Republic of China" and included the Taiwan map into the mainland Chinese territory. This shows that no matter how the US-Taiwan relations are hotly hyped, the US administrative departments still adhere to the "one-China policy", but there is only a normal cycle of loose or tightness in details. Like Tsai Ing-wen's small moves in visiting the United States, it is not enough to reflect the overall picture or "escalation" of US-Taiwan relations.
No matter how the DPP exaggerated the "White House Sailor and Congressional Speech" before, the reality is that Tsai Ing-wen can only "joy with the people" in the libraries and cultural and educational centers. Before Tsai's visit, Qualcomm settled with the Taiwan "Fair Conference". Qualcomm's fine of NT$21.5 billion in Taiwan was greatly reduced to NT$2.7 billion; and after Tsai left the United States, he had to go to Paraguay to send a "touching diplomatic gift package" including PPP model investment and trade surplus to "gubang".It can be seen that after the political clouds disappeared, Tsai's "transit" trip was another "Kaizi diplomacy" journey with a wealthy man who bought bones and embellished his misfortune.
Editor in charge: Wang Xin
