Kuomintang Leader Zheng Liwen Visits the USA

Zheng Liwen, leader of Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), began a two-week tour of the United States on June 1, which is an interesting development in one of the key issues at the current stage of the “Great Global Game.”

Kuomintang Position on Taiwan

Any representative of the current Taiwan administration and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will say without hesitation that this recent trip is the second, since as recently as this May, Ms. Zheng had already traveled to the PRC, where she behaved rather inappropriately. Meanwhile, the Chinese leadership would respond: “naturally, the first, because she came to us in the capacity of the head of a patriotic party from one of our provinces, whose leaders signed the ‘1992 Consensus’ with us back in 1992 on the fundamental principle of “One China.”

If you ask Zheng Liwen herself, she is unlikely to provide a direct answer. Instead, she would probably launch into lengthy reflections on the “need to maintain peace and fruitful cooperation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.” This is because, when signing the Consensus, the Kuomintang undoubtedly meant “One China” to refer not to the current PRC, but to the “Republic of China,” which was formed at the beginning of the last century as a result of the Xinhai Revolution led by Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Kuomintang and the “father of modern China.” A figure, incidentally, who is also revered in the PRC, where his mausoleum is located.

An almost identical “ambiguous and indeterminate” position on the Taiwan issue (one that has been fixed at the legislative level) has been maintained by Washington for nearly half a century. Its strategy of ambiguity remains the main obstacle preventing Beijing from resolving this issue on its own terms. It should be noted, however, that this strategy is far from the worst option in the current relations between the PRC and its main geopolitical opponent.........

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