Analysis: KMT Delegation Goes to China
A delegation of KMT officials and lawmakers has visited Beijing and met with Chinese officials. TaiwanPlus spoke with political analyst Courtney Donovan Smith about the significance of the trip and those who joined it.
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00:00 So tell us a little bit about the Taiwanese politicians who have joined this delegation
00:03 and what their significance might be. The most important person is of course Fu
00:07 Kuan-chi who is the KMT caucus convener and leads his caucus. Now he's known as the king of Hualien
00:15 and him coming along on this trip has been a little bit contentious because of the recent
00:19 earthquakes in Hualien so there's been some criticism on that but he says that he wants to
00:24 bring investment and tourists back from China so ultimately this trip will benefit Hualien.
00:32 Now also on this trip was Jessica Chen, the Jinmen lawmaker, and she has been working to try and
00:38 release the men from the fishing boat who is also reportedly in the military so she's trying to
00:46 secure his release. Once this delegation arrived in China they announced that they would lift
00:51 bans on imports of Taiwanese pomelos, allow some tourists to go to the Mazu Islands. How do you
00:58 think that the Tsai administration and the incoming Lai administration might respond to this? Are they
01:03 going to be open to having more tourists from China? It's important to remember that it was
01:09 not the Tsai Ing-wen government that that severed these links, it was the Chinese side that did so.
01:14 I think this is kind of normal in that the Chinese side is giving the credit to taking
01:22 away the restrictions that they themselves had imposed, giving the credit to the KMT. However,
01:28 if they're going to reopen tourism that's a pretty big deal. That was a big deal when it was cut and
01:34 it would be a big deal if they reopen it. You know Chinese diplomacy can often be quite
01:39 transactional so what's China's goal in all this? I mean what is it that they hope to get out of it?
01:44 Yes you're right they're very transactional. I mean obviously they wanted to prop up the KMT.
01:49 I think they also wanted to show the KMT legislative caucus that they can work with them
01:56 because the legislature does have some ability to change the situation although they don't have the
02:00 executives so they're limited in what they can do. But they want to give encouragement to the KMT.
02:06 It's possible that they're also signaling to the incoming Lai government that they're willing to
02:11 be more flexible now and they are willing to roll back some of the restrictions and blockages that
02:21 they themselves had imposed earlier against the Tsai administration. So there may be some
02:27 signaling to the incoming Lai administration.
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