A matter of practicality

On the trip back from New York City, my friends and I got into a brief discussion about Taiwanese politics. Three Taiwanese girls from different backgrounds (whose parents had very very different political views), and one Chinese girl from mainland China.

The three Taiwanese explained to the Chinese girl that in Taiwanese politics there are two main parties, the pan-blue (KMT) and pan-green (DPP). They are usually caricutured as pro-unification and pro-independence. But our pan-blue representative in the car clarified that it's not pro-unification, but to keep the "status quo".

What is the "status quo"? It is the fact that Taiwan operates independently in governance, international trade, military, but stumbles around in diplomacy (and therefore international events). We have more military power than Japan, yet are forced to call ourselves "Chinese Taipei" in the olympics and other world games. We elect our own president, and legislature, yet only 23 countries have diplomatic ties with us. We have a very succesful national health care system that covers most everyone on the island, yet we cannot get a seat in the WHO, or the UN, or most other things for that matter.

The "status quo" is de-facto independence. So one could argue that both major parties in Taiwan are in favor of independence, and so are the majority of voters. What differs is their attitude towards relations with China. One side is more pragmatic (and at the same time slightly erring on the side of being a push-over). The other side takes a more confrontational stance, an attitude cultivated by starting out as an opposition party in a authoritarian environment.

The Chinese girl in our company was surprised: "well if there are only 23 countries that admit you are an official country, why is it easier for you Taiwanese to get visas for the United States and many European countries than it is for us?"

The answer is the world is pragmatic. People will in the end find a way for things to function despite the politics. Just like the fact that although it sucks to be called Chinese Taipei during the olympics, if that's the way we get to compete that's the way we'll do it, after all it's just a name.

And most of the time we feel all of the fuss about cross-strait relations is just politics, often mostly posturing and competition between China and the United States, and misuse for election purposes by our own local politicians. We real people have more practical things to worry about, such as what to eat for dinner.