Taiwan: Time Magazine Interviews President Ma Ying-jeou, Plus a Rant

And throughout Time magazine's interview, Ma did absolutely nothing to win me over. He can babble on and on (and he sounds very polished and smooth, I grant that), but there's NO CORE. Or at least, there's no core that I would care to have helming Taiwan or defending its sovereignty.

When he first won the election, I had warily said "let's wait and see" in response to the people yelling that Ma was going to be the death of us all and a disaster for Taiwanese democracy. Well, it's been a few months now, and I'm beginning to think that maybe that pessimism wasn't completely misplaced. And the Taiwanese seem to be having a case of "buyer's remorse." Ma's approval ratings are falling. He was swept into office on a huge wave of popularity and media love, buoyed up by the unpopularity of his predecessor and by his own smoothly telegenic style, and, well, look at him now. For an entire slate of reasons, his shine has worn off.

Read the whole interview, but I give you this bit as an example:

TIME: We've had Taiwan people tell us that they are worried that closer ties with China will dilute the character of Taiwan, which is freer, more spirited and more independent.

MA: I wouldn't worry about that at all. Almost every country in the world welcomes mainland tourists. It is a golden opportunity for Taiwan not just to make money but to also to establish more friendships with mainland people. The education ministry has also decided to recognize mainland diplomas and many mainland students will come to Taiwan to study. And that is also my policy. I want to make young people of the two sides have an opportunity to get to know each other at a relatively early stage of their lives. This is the best way for mutual understanding. If we continue to do that, in the next ten years, you will have mainlanders in Taiwan, and Taiwanese on the mainland, a very close interrelationship. I don't see you could start a war like that. This is the best national defense.

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME? That's your answer? Pie-eyed wispy dreams about young people? You're channeling Obamessiah at his most rhetorically grand but substantively silly. Young people who are students -- they're the generation they've been waiting for! they'll change the world for the better! Well, I'll tell how Beijing feels about these kinds of young people: ever heard of Tiananmen Square?

Mutual understanding, my eye. It sounds good. It sounds hopeful and idealistic and all that. But I'm not convinced. Mutual understanding entails give-and-take, a two-way street, but I don't think Beijing's in the mood for much of that. At least not in the Taiwan area. In almost every single instance where my relatives and I have run into mainlanders, they become hostile as soon as they find out that we are from Taiwan. Yes, yes, I know they're only doing what they've been taught to do (and think) via pervasive propaganda about Taiwan, but it's not a good indication of give-and-take. The overwhelming sense is that there will be "harmony" only when we give up our convictions and agree with them about China and Taiwan. Am I supposed to believe that somehow, magically, this sort of thing won't repeat itself with other Taiwan-mainlander interactions just because Ma says so?

By the way, there already are mainlanders in Taiwan and Taiwanese on the mainland. They're called tourists and businesspeople. And some are called spies.

Ooooh, and here's a thought: anybody remember the origin of the KMT in Taiwan? Don't make me get out a history book and throw it at you, Ma! You know -- and you just want everyone to forget the KMT's bloody and dictatorial past . . . and the fact that it forced itself on Taiwan in 1949. Maybe it's unfair for me to say that I think the KMT has a history of prioritizing itself over the welfare of Taiwan and the Taiwanese. But I'm saying it anyway.

So you want more mainlanders in Taiwan so both sides can have better interrelationships. Well, under this rubric, even full-out Chinese invasion would fit the description, wouldn't it -- if Beijing ever invades, there will be even more mainlanders in Taiwan to have close interrelationship with the Taiwanese!

I'm ranting now, and I can't stop. I can't believe that any serious president of Taiwan would answer a serious question about Taiwanese integrity and Chinese influence with the words "I wouldn't worry about that at all." If you're not worrying, Ma, what the heck are you doing? You should be worrying! Heck, I worry and so do all my relatives! You should be working hard on behalf of the island, and given the fact that Beijing is constantly harassing Taiwan, if you're working for the island, you will be under pressure! If you're not under some pressure, you might not fully appreciate what's at stake (at best) and you might really be in cahoots with old-school KMT diehards like Lien Chan who are all too happy to kowtow and kiss up to Beijing (at worst). If you want to turn Taiwan into a mainland satrapy like Hong Kong, well, that's your own desire (I assume you want to be satrap). I've had plenty of Taiwanese tell me flat out that they never want to be a second HK.

And MONEY! Ma turns the talk to the possibility of making money. It's actually kind of shrewd. Hey, why worry about personal freedoms if you can get filthy rich? Get obscenely wealthy and roll in all that cash -- all you have to do is sign a teeny tiny waiver, giving away your democratic rights. Money money money -- it's the latest in bread and circuses. Go on and make a heap of cash, as long as you don't mess about the government. It's worked for Beijing, hasn't it? Ma: "It is a golden opportunity for Taiwan not just to make money . . . " Blind everyone with dreams of lucre and avarice, exploit people's selfish short-sighted desires for comfort, and maybe they won't notice or care about such little things as national security, etc. I'm horrified to report that some of this is already happening.

And I haven't even gotten to the bit that made my blood boil. So Ma, sitting pretty in his suit and tie, tells Time, "you will have mainlanders in Taiwan, and Taiwanese on the mainland, a very close interrelationship. I don't see you could start a war like that. This is the best national defense."

"I don't see (how) you could start a war like that"? What? Does he have no inkling about war? And he thinks this is "the best national defense"? What kind of vacuous pipe dream is this? To quote the immortal Dorothy Parker, what fresh hell is this? I've seen more substance in a soap bubble. So in Ma's happy fantasy-land of cotton candy and baby unicorns, we'll all hold hands with the autocrats of the CCP and PLA ("a very close interrelationship," after all), eat dim sum together under a huge portrait of of a fat grinning Mao, and everything will be fine. Just remember to turn over your civil liberties at the coatroom, and don't worry about the latest news reports about poison-tainted dumplings!

Really, Ma, if your view of national security is this silly and (apparently) willfully blind to Beijing's military side and total disregard for human rights and individual freedoms, then you can take a long walk on a short pier. There are some very nice ones in Tamsui. They're even good and close to Taipei, so you don't have far to go. Maybe a good dunking in the sea there will wake you up.

Now you can call me a gunslinging rightwing warmonger if you want to, but I still think that the best national defense is being well armed and well trained to use those arms! I believe in the porcupine approach to Taiwanese national defense. Ma apparently believes in the possum approach. Or in the porcupine approach as long as the porcupine voluntarily takes off all its quills and says to its predators, "Hey, I'm unarmed, so I'm not provoking you. So don't eat me, OK?" Good luck with that.

So, really, now, is Ma naive or sinister? Does he honestly believe his own treacly drivel about "relationships," or is he after some CCP-KMT power-sharing agreement that will ultimately freeze out Taiwanese democracy? In my most darkly pessimistic moments, I have thought that there are elements in the KMT that would willingly sell out the whole island and all its 23 million residents if these KMTers could get their own small bit of personal power, even if it is power as a new imperial eunuch to the court of Beijing overlords. I hope I'm wrong. I really do. But I also remember how Hu Jintao worked to strengthen the KMT, to the detriment of the DPP. What sober free citizen isn't utterly dismayed at this appalling kind of interference by a hostile foreign power? But what does the KMT care? They're the beneficiaries.

Oh, and View from Taiwan points out that Ma doesn't even answer the interviewer's question about some Taiwanese people's concerns. He just sidesteps it and slides into his abundant load of BS.

We're living in perilous days.