Since the end of former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation has taken Taiwanese students to visit China and invited Chinese students to Taiwan.
Ma calls those activities “cross-strait exchanges,” yet the trips completely avoid topics prohibited by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), such as democracy, freedom and human rights — all of which are universal values.
During the foundation’s most recent Chinese student tour group, a Fudan University student used terms such as “China, Taipei” and “the motherland” when discussing Taiwan’s recent baseball victory.
The group’s visit to Zhongshan Girls’ High School also received prominent coverage in Chinese state media, with some headlines saying, “Tang Seng entering the Silken Web Cave” (唐僧進盤絲洞), a literary reference to the novel Journey to the West (西遊記), a phrase which can be interpreted as misogynistic and objectifying.
Those incidents have sparked outrage in Taiwan, and the student group’s subsequent visits to National Taiwan University, Tamsui District (淡水) and National Tsing Hua University were met with loud protests from students and the public.
However, Ma and his foundation not only did not convey any dissatisfaction with the Chinese media’s use of humiliating language, but they also meekly accepted the belittling term “China, Taipei.”
Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) even said that “China, Taiwan” is acceptable.
Ma’s so-called “1992 consensus” is nothing but a tool to spread CCP propaganda such as “China, Taipei,” “China, Taiwan” and “China’s Taiwan Province.”
If he is referred to as anything other than the “former president of the Republic of China” abroad, Ma protests — yet, when it comes to Taiwan and China, he gladly accepts the CPP’s humiliation and belittlement. These “cross-strait exchanges” arranged by Ma and his foundation are nothing more than acts of surrender to the CCP.
Liu Shih-ming is an adjunct associate professor in the Graduate School of Taiwanese Culture at the National Taipei University of Education.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
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