Taiwan Elections: Foundation for the Future - Hoover Institution

Romberg, China Leadership Monitor, No. 24
jure unification, given the KMT’s absolute majority in the LY. And in the process, he
charged, Ma would abandon the opportunity to boost Taiwan’s security forces. 38
On his second line of attack, the DPP standard-bearer lodged a dizzying
succession of charges of impropriety not only against Ma, but against his wife, sister, and
daughter, all ostensibly reflecting on Ma’s character and suggesting illegality in his
behavior. 39 Even when the High Court affirmed Ma’s “not guilty” verdict over misuse of
funds, Hsieh found a basis for charging Ma with moral turpitude: “The court ruling only
reflects the fact that Ma lied about the use of the fund and his morals and credibility are
bankrupt,” he said. 40
Although polls suggested that voters were not being swayed in large numbers by
Hsieh’s charges—either with respect to the attacks on Ma’s, and his family’s, personal
character, or with respect to attacks on various of his policies—Ma’s campaign
developed a “war room” approach. Remembering the lackluster effort in 2004 to counter
Chen Shui-bian’s effective campaign tactics, this time they geared themselves up to
respond quickly—hopefully within the same news cycle—to opposition attacks. When
Hsieh confronted Ma on his proposal for a major construction program, for example,
KMT campaign headquarters called a press conference the same day to rebut the DPP
candidate’s points one by one, employing a bit of sarcasm reminiscent of some American
political campaigns: “Mr. Frank Hsieh’s aides should work a little bit harder and provide
their boss with accurate information to save him from the embarrassment of making
unfounded accusations every day.” 41
The entire identity issue was of sufficient importance to Ma that he spent a good
deal of time in the 24 February TV debate underscoring his total identification with
Taiwan: “I am Taiwanese. I am a Taiwanese who grew up in Wanhua. 42 I am a
Taiwanese who grew up eating Taiwanese rice and drinking Taiwanese water. I want to
act as an upright Taiwanese, and I will be buried in this land. I gave up my job in the US
and I gave up my green card. Nothing will change my love for Taiwan.” 43
To underscore that he would not betray Taiwan’s interests, in mid-January Ma
adopted what he termed a policy of “no unification, no independence, and no use of
force.” 44 “No independence” was a reiteration of Ma’s—and the KMT’s—consistent
opposition to any steps toward de jure independence. “No unification” was a pledge not
only that Ma would not move to unification during his term of office but also that he
would not even discuss it with Beijing. 45 As to the “no use of force,” that, of course,
really depended on Beijing, but it was reasonable to assume that the “no independence”
pledge would help guarantee that force would not be used.
Before leaving this topic, it does need to be said that unedifying charges against
Hsieh also began to surface from the KMT side, including that he had been a “stool
pigeon” against democracy advocates during the martial law period, 46 that his wife had
been known for her dubious money-raising practices on his behalf in southern Taiwan, 47
and that he had engaged in other illicit activities. 48 As with Ma, even though the charges
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