BEIJING, April 25 -- Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT) Party Chairman Lien Chan is to visit the mainland tomorrow following his deputy Chiang Pin-kung's mainland trip between March 28 and April 1. It's no surprise that the Taiwan authorities have begun to attach various kinds of labels to the KMT ahead of Lien's visit.

　　Over the past few years, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration has counted on attaching labels to the opposition parties to win two "presidential" elections, in 2000 and 2004.

　　Such a political trick, however, suffered a major setback in last December's "legislative" elections in which the "pan-green camp" formed by the DPP and the hard line Taiwan Solidarity Union was defeated by the "pan-blue camp," formed by the opposition KMT, the People First Party (PFP) and the New Party.

　　Now, as the opposition parties are pushing for closer exchanges with the mainland, the DPP administration has again picked up its old trick.

　　There has been a flurry of "mainland fever" in Taiwan during the past weeks. While cross-Straits economic and cultural exchanges have been making fast progress, some politicians and party leaders have also been involved in this "mainland fever."

　　Following Chiang Pin-kung's mainland trip, both Lien and PFP Chairman James Soong are to visit the mainland, and more leading politicians on the island have showed their willingness to do so.

　　Against such a background, even some DPP leaders have expressed a desire to visit the mainland. But they failed to take action for the following reasons.

　　First, they are afraid of hurting the dignity of the ruling party by joining in the "mainland fever" launched by the opposition parties.

　　Second, they are still bound by the DPP's pro-independence party platform.

　　Third, they fear their visit to the mainland may ruin their political future.

　　That's why the DPP has such a "sour grapes" feeling and tries hard to criticize and attach labels to the opposition parties for their mainland visits.

　　In fact, the labels which the DPP has attempted to put on the opposition parties are old ones. They include the phrases "selling out Taiwan," "Taiwanese treason" and "pro-Communists."

　　Has such a practice of putting labels on others produced any effect this time? No. So the DPP has begun to threaten the KMT with legal action and has already launched a probe into Chiang Pin-kung over his visit to the mainland.

　　But I think such a move is doomed to failure, too.

　　Currently the majority of Taiwanese people and the opposition parties favour closer cross-Straits relations. They no longer fear being criticized for putting on a red hat - slang for calling someone a Communist - nor do they worry about the DPP's legal action.

　　That's because what the DPP has done violates the interests of the broad mass of Taiwanese people, who do not want to sit idle any more and are becoming a great force in resisting the DPP policy of provoking cross-Straits confrontation and hostility.

　　Indeed, Chiang and Lien represent not only themselves, but also nearly 1 million KMT members as well as "pan-blue" voters who account for half of the island's total population. It is safe to say they represent Taiwan's mainstream public opinion if their supporters from within the "pan-green camp" are included.

　　Given such a situation, will the DPP administration solve the problem by taking legal action against the opposition parties?

　　As an old Chinese saying goes, "Things will run in the opposite direction to the one expected when a situation becomes critical." If the ruling DPP administration stubbornly goes its own way, it will only end up being thrown out of power.

　　(Source: China Daily)