Taiwan's presidential opposition candidate heads to Japan for four-day visit
Democratic Progressive Party's Tsai Ing-wen lost 2012 presidential bid to Taiwan’s current leader, President Ma Ying-jeou, largely due to electorate's fears over her stance on cross-strait issues
Taiwanese opposition party leader and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen said she hoped Taiwan and Japan could jointly maintain regional stability as she arrived in Tokyo yesterday for a four-day trip that is seen as her seeking support from one of Taiwan’s most important partners.
“I hope the friendship between Taiwan and Japan can become a partnership that is closer and [more] cooperative in the next stage,” she told members of a Taiwan-friendly Japanese parliamentary group, expressing hopes for closer bilateral ties if elected president in the January election.
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As chairwoman of Taiwan’s pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, Tsai said her trip’s main purpose was to promote economic cooperation and cultural exchanges between Taiwan and Japan.
But the trip follows what appears to be a pattern set by previous DPP presidential hopeful Chen Shui-bian when he visited Japan ahead of the 2000 election, which he won, and by Tsai herself when she travelled there ahead of the 2011 presidential election.
While it is unclear whether she will meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during her trip, Tsai will be hosted by Abe’s younger brother Nobuo Kishi, a member of Japan’s House of Councillors, when she travels to Yamaguchi prefecture, home to the Abe family, on Wednesday.
Wang Hsing-ching, a Taipei-based commentator who writes under the name Nan Fang-shuo, said Tsai’s trip would pave the way for Taipei to resume closer diplomatic ties with Tokyo.
“As Tsai is the most likely presidential candidate to win Taiwan’s election next year, Abe and other Japanese political heavyweights will be keen to meet her. She comes from the traditionally Tokyo-friendly DPP,” Wang said.
“Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang maintains only trading and economic ties with Japan because of its long-standing anti-Japanese sentiment left over from fighting in the second world war.”
Tsai lost her first presidential bid to Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT, which prioritises Taiwan’s ties with mainland China, largely because of people’s worries about her position on the cross-strait issues and her lack of clarity. Ma is the serving president.
As Taipei and Tokyo both bear grudges against mainland China, Tsai’s trip to Japan might make Beijing unhappy, Wang said.
“But Beijing’s anger will not have any impact on Tsai’s public support,” he said. “Many Taiwanese are not happy about the ruling Kuomintang’s pro-Beijing policies, which benefit only large enterprises and KMT-owned companies.”
