方恩格專欄》懲處馬英九基金會 違背賴總統主張

大陸高校師生訪問團1日下午赴臺中洲際棒球場，被問及中華隊在世界12強棒球賽中奪冠，復旦大學經濟學院大四生宋思瑤表示，代表師生訪問團祝賀中國臺北隊，希望大陸和臺灣同胞像中信兄弟英文隊名中的「Brothers」一樣，一起爲祖國在棒球領域更上一層樓。

過去一週，臺灣發生了三件重要的政治事件。

賴清德總統於520就職後首次出訪。可以理解的是，賴和他的團隊會希望他的訪問順利，而且臺灣媒體和大衆的注意力能夠每天聚焦在他訪問夏威夷、馬紹爾羣島、吐瓦魯、關島和帛琉的相關報導。

然而，賴總統此行並沒有什麼「突破」。前總統蔡英文曾於2017年和2019年兩次過境夏威夷。2016年蔡總統過境美國曾與衆院議長萊恩通電話。因此，賴總統此行與現任衆院議長強生以及其他政治人物通話，不算是什麼突破。而賴總統與美國前衆議院議長裴洛西進行通話也就更不算什麼了。與裴洛西2022年訪問臺北相比，就更沒有新聞價值了。

賴總統的此行因碰到美國感恩節週末開始而有點「扣分」。11月30日和12月1日的假日，幾位夏威夷政界人士和美國在臺協會官員不得不因感恩節而終止休假，只爲了參加美國智庫東西中心的演講。

上週另一個重大政治新聞是民進黨立法院黨團在社羣媒體上發表的爭議性貼文。這篇貼文發佈後不久就被刪除。在韓國總統尹錫悅宣佈戒嚴後，它似乎將中國國民黨和臺灣民衆黨在立法院的行動與韓國在野黨的行動比擬。換言之，民進黨的貼文似乎是支持尹錫悅的宣佈戒嚴令。

不難理解，國民黨和民衆黨及其支持者對這篇文章非常反感。如果民進黨想了結這件事，發文者公開道歉即可，但相反地，民進黨沒有面對，只是推給小編，讓外界猜測到底誰是誰授意小編。

然而，對筆者來說，本週最大的新聞是馬英九基金會邀訪的大陸學生代表團馬龍等人來訪，因爲成員宋思瑤的言論引發陸委會的反應。馬龍陸生團的宋思瑤迴應訪問時，祝賀「中國臺北」隊獲得世界棒壘球第12強賽冠軍，因不是在國際體育比賽以及臺灣在多邊組織如APEC中稱爲「中華臺北」而引發爭議。

陸委會主委邱垂正表示，政府將對馬英九基金會採取行政處分，因爲宋思瑤使用「中國臺灣」的說法「傷害了臺灣人的感情，矮化了臺灣，是臺灣人民不能接受的。」然而陸委會的反應存在許多問題。

首先，馬英九基金會無法監管訪問團成員對媒體所說的話。期望馬英九基金會限制來訪者的言論是不合邏輯的；基金會怎麼能這麼做？陸委會認爲馬英九基金會的工作人員真能阻止代表團成員說出他們想說的話嗎？限制陸客的言論將違反臺灣對言論自由的尊重，也不利於向陸客宣揚臺灣價值。另一種做法是禁止媒體向來訪的大陸代表團提問，但這會侵犯新聞自由，並引發更多爭議。

其次，大陸習慣對臺灣參加國際運動比賽時用「中國臺北」隊來描述臺灣隊。無論是大陸官方機構發言人、大陸官媒，或是大陸社羣媒體平臺上的個人評論，「中國臺北」都是大陸對臺灣的稱呼。雖然這不是臺灣在國際體育比賽中的官方名稱，而且臺灣人不喜歡大陸人使用「中國臺北」，但毫不奇怪，大陸人即使在訪問臺灣時也是這樣描述。

第三，對馬英九基金會的懲處，讓人覺得陸委會很容易被一個陸客的一句話嚇到。雖然馬龍陸生團對臺灣的描述在臺灣受到不少媒體關注，但現實是，臺灣2300萬民衆不太可能關心宋思瑤所說的話。如果陸委會對宋思瑤的迴應只是說「我們不同意」，情況可能會更好。而不是把陸生團對臺灣隊的描述變成重大政治議題。

第四，讓陸委會顯得小氣、黨派化。懲罰馬英九基金會看似是懲罰對象，因爲馬英九是國民黨出身，他對兩岸關係的看法與陸委會和賴政府的看法不同。換個角度看，如果一個大陸代表團去臺灣是受一個與政府關係密切的組織邀請的，而代表團成員也說了宋思瑤所說的同樣的話，那麼這個組織是否也會受到懲罰呢？

最後，它違背了賴總統呼籲與大陸對話的主張。賴總統在就職演說中表示，中國應該「以對話取代對抗，交流取代圍堵」；在國慶講話中，賴總統說「兩岸進行健康有序的對話與交流」。對馬英九基金會實施懲罰與賴總統與中國對話的呼籲不相符。

最終如果陸委會對馬英九基金會邀請的代表團成員的一句話如此擔心，也許今後陸委會應該禁止所有來自大陸的代表團。第一個被禁止的將是來自上海的代表團，他們將於本月訪問臺北參加即將舉行的上海-臺北雙城論壇。畢竟，那個代表團的成員也可能會用臺灣人不喜歡的方式來描述臺灣！

（作者爲美國共和黨前亞太區主席）

This Week’s Biggest Story in Taiwan

By Ross Darrell Feingold

@RossFeingold

This past week there were three important political events in Taiwan.

President William Lai Ching-te made his first overseas trip following his inauguration last May 20th. Understandably, Lai and his aides would hope that his trip will go well, and that the attention of Taiwan’s media and public would report daily on his visits to Hawaii, Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Guam, and Palau.

However, nothing about President Lai’s trip was a “breakthrough”. Former President Tsai Ing-wen transited Hawaii two times, in 2017 and 2019. In 2016 when transiting the United States, President Tsai had a teleconference with the then United States Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan, so it’s not a breakthrough that President Lai had a teleconference with current United States Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson or with other American politicians.

It is also not a breakthrough that President Lai had a teleconference with former United States House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. A teleconference with former Speaker Pelosi is not newsworthy when compared to Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in 2022.

President Lai’s trip deserves some “points deduction” for commencing on the weekend of the American holiday of Thanksgiving. On Saturday November 30th and Sunday December 1st, several Hawaii politicians and American Institute in Taiwan officials had to interrupt the Thanksgiving holiday weekend to meet with President Lai, as did the scholars and other friends of Taiwan who attended President Lai’s speech at the East-West Center think tank.

Another big political news story last week was the controversial post on social media by the Democratic Progressive Party Legislative Yuan caucus. The post, which was deleted shortly after it was posted, appeared to equate the actions in the Legislative Yuan of the Chinese Nationalist Party and the Taiwan People’s Party to the reasons South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol disliked the actions of opposition parties in South Korea’s National Assembly. In other words, the post by the Democratic Progressive Party appeared to support President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law.

Understandably, the Chinese Nationalist Party and the Taiwan People’s Party, as well as their supporters, were disgusted by this post. If the Democratic Progressive Party wants to bring this matter to a close, the person who wrote the post might consider a public apology. Instead, the public is only left to guess who the author might be.

However, for this author, the biggest story of the week was the Mainland Affairs Council reaction to the comment made by Song Siyao, a member of the Chinese student delegation hosted last week by the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation. Song Siyao’s transgression was to congratulate the “China, Taipei” team on winning the World Baseball and Softball Confederation Premier 12 championship, instead of calling the team “Chinese Taipei”, Taiwan’s official name in international sports competitions as well as in multilateral organizations that Taiwan participates in such as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng 邱垂正 said that the government is to pursue administrative action against the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, because Song Siyao’s use of “China Taiwan” “hurt the feelings of Taiwanese and belittled Taiwan [and] are unacceptable to the public”.

There are many problems with the Mainland Affairs Council reaction.

First, the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation cannot police what the members of the visiting delegation said to the media. It is illogical to expect the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation to restrict what the visitors say; how could the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation do so? Does the Mainland Affairs Council think that Ma Ying-jeou Foundation staff can really stop the delegation members from saying what they want to say? Restricting what the visitors from China say would violate Taiwan’s respect for free speech, and would be inconsistent with teaching visitors from China what Taiwan’s values are. An alternative approach would be to ban the media from asking the visiting Chinese delegation any questions, but this would violate freedom of the press, and lead to more controversy.

Second, describing teams from Taiwan that compete in international sports competitions as “China, Taipei” is the description used in the mainland. Whether spokespersons from China’s government agencies, in China’s state-controlled media, or on China’s social media platforms in comments by individuals, “China, Taipei” is the description for Taiwan that is used in China. Although it is not Taiwan’s official name in international sports competitions, and people in Taiwan dislike when people in China use “China, Taipei”, it comes as no surprise that someone from China used this description, even when visiting Taiwan.

Third, issuing a punishment to the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation makes it appear that the Mainland Affairs Council is easily frightened by what one person from China said. Although Ma Long’s description of Taiwan received a lot of media attention in Taiwan, the reality is that it is unlikely that 23,000,000 people in Taiwan care what Ma Long said. The Mainland Affairs Council might be better off if its response to Ma Long was to simply say “We disagree!” rather than to turn Ma Long’s description of Team Taiwan into a major political issue.

Fourth, it makes the Mainland Affairs Council look both petty and partisan. Punishing the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation seems like it is a target for punishment because Ma Ying-jeou is from the Chinese Nationalist Party and his views on cross-straits relations are different from the Mainland Affairs Council and the Lai Administration’s views. To look at this another way, if a delegation from China to Taiwan was invited by an organization close to the government, and a delegation member said the same thing as Ma Long said, would that organization also be punished?

Finally, it goes against President Lai’s call for dialogue with the mainland. President Lai, in his Inaugural Address said China should “choose dialogue over confrontation, exchange over containment,” and in his National Day address, President Lai called for “healthy and orderly dialogue and exchanges between the two sides of the strait”. Imposing a punishment on the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation would be inconsistent with President Lai’s call for dialogue with China.

Ultimately, if the Mainland Affairs Council is so concerned about one statement by a member of the delegation hosted by the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, perhaps going forward the Mainland Affairs Council should simply ban all delegations from China. The first one to ban would be the delegation from Shanghai that will visit Taipei for the upcoming Shanghai-Taipei forum this month. After all, a member of that delegation might also describe Taiwan in a way that people in Taiwan dislike!

（作者爲美國共和黨前亞太區主席）