DPP EXPELS MEMBERS FOR ATTENDING KMT-CCP FORUM

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TAIPEI 000896

C O R R E C T E D C O P Y - SUBJECT LINE

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/27/2019
TAGS: PGOV TW
SUBJECT: DPP EXPELS MEMBERS FOR ATTENDING KMT-CCP FORUM

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Classified By: Acting Director Robert S. Wang,
Reasons: 1.4 (b/d)


1. (C) Summary. The DPP expelled former legislator Hsu
Jung-shu and former Council of Agriculture head Fan
Chen-tzung from the party on July 27 for ignoring a party ban
and attending the KMT-CCP Fifth Cross-Strait Economic, Trade
and Cultural Forum in China. The DPP's stern stance
demonstrates the party leadership's unease with Taiwan's
deepening ties with China as well as the party's own struggle
to determine how to handle members who seek to engage with
PRC counterparts and participate in mainland events. End
summary.

Prominent DPP Figures Ignore Party Ban
--------------

2. (C) The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on
July 27 expelled former DPP legislator Hsu Jung-shu and
former Council of Agriculture head Fan Chen-tzung from the
party for five years after they defied orders banning them
from attending the July 11-12 KMT-CCP Fifth Cross-Strait
Economic, Trade and Cultural Forum in Changsha, Hunan
Province. The expulsion came four days after the party
initially decided to suspend Hsu and Fan and hours after Fan
announced plans to withdraw from the DPP. The DPP passed a
resolution on July 8 barring members who have served as party
or elected officials from attending the forum after Taiwan
press reported Hsu and Fan had accepted invitations from the
KMT. Hsu and Fan participated in the forum despite the bar
and, our contacts claim, several personal pleas by party
members. DPP International Affairs Director Bikhm Hsiao
acknowledged that the KMT had tried in the past to invite DPP
members to the forum, but DPP members were not interested.
(Note: The KMT-CCP forum was launched in 2006.)


3. (C) The CCP and KMT are trying to "pierce the unity" of
the DPP by inviting the party's members to participate in
their meetings, claimed Hsiao. She also maintained the CCP
is trying to "co-opt" DPP members. The CCP probably offered
Fan and Hsu "favors" to secure their attendance at the forum,
opined Hsiao, Taipei City Councilor and DPP Central Executive
Committee Member Wu Szu-yao and DPP Central Standing
Committee Member Luo Wen-jia to POLOFF in separate meetings.
Each contact explained that it was fine to visit China but
unnecessary to engage the CCP.


4. (C) The DPP had "no choice" but to take a hard line
against Hsu and Fan, maintained Hsiao. Their visit was "a
slap on DPP Chair Tsai Ing-wen's face," explained Tai Li'an,
director of the independent Global Views Survey Research
Center. Hsiao noted that the party had received a barrage of
"plurks" and phone calls from members expressing outrage that
Hsu and Fan attended the KMT-CCP forum (Note: Plurk is a
social networking and micro-blogging service that allows
users to send short messages known as "plurks.")

DPP Institutes New China Travel Policy
--------------

5. (SBU) This case reflects the DPP's broader attempt to
handle a growing interest among its senior members in
traveling to China in a non-personal capacity. On June 17,
the DPP issued new regulations requiring all ranking party
and government officials at the city and county councilor
level and above to report non-personal travel plans to China
to party headquarters. The DPP Chinese Affair Panel will
review each case and decide whether to approve travel plans.
The party formulated the new rules after Kaohsiung Mayor Chen
Chu's highly publicized visit to China in May to promote her
city's hosting of the World Games.


6. (C) DPP's Hsiao explained that the new rules were aimed
at increasing transparency and pointed out that personal
travel to China was not a problem. DPP members should travel
to China to better understand the people and place but also
need to adhere to party regulations, maintained Wu Szu-yao to
poloff during a July 17 meeting. Wu opined that the party is
not trying to approve or deny trips but is simply asking
senior members to "register" and receive advice from the

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party before traveling. Asked how members are reacting to
the new rules, Hsiao claimed most members are not objecting
to them. She noted that some members, including Tainan Mayor
Hsu Tain-tsair were even reconsidering their trips. (Note:
Hsu first announced plans to attend the opening ceremony in
China of the First Strait Cup Sailing Boat Championship in
late June and later cited a mid-July date.)

Comment
--------------


7. (C) The explusion of Hsu and Fan and the new travel rules
implemented in June represent the DPP's heightened
sensitivity not so much to travel to China by its members but
to the need to impose party discipline. While our contacts
have noted that trend of DPP members visiting China is not
new and some have indeed take multiple trips, the new rules
and stern reaction to Hsu and Fan's trip reveal the party's
need to exert control in light of President Ma's ongoing
initiatives to deepen cross-Strait ties. The two separate
rulings on the Hsu and Fan case, first to suspend and then to
expel them, reveals disagreement within the party on how
tough a line to take when enforcing such new rules. In fact,
it was well known that many lower level CCP members and
analysts had met with DPP members on their trips to Taiwan in
the past. The DPP probably hopes the strong punishment
serves to warn other members not to openly defy the party in
the face of the KMT and CCP challenge to divide the party
further.
WANG