Tit for Tat: Should the Kuomintang (KMT), the pre-war II Chinese Nationalist Party on Tauwan, reinvigorate its mainland operations?
Canada is debating the extent of Chinese Communist Party influence on the last three federal elections. A call has arisen for a major public inquiry. The Liberal government led by Prine Minister Justin Trudeau continues to dodge and weave on an inquiry. The latest tactic is to take several weeks to choose a rapporteur to look into whether an inquiry is necessary.
Mark Gollum of the Canadian Broadcast Corporation, a government media outlet, has written an Overview of Chinese efforts to influence elections abroad.
“In a 2017 report, Anne-Marie Brady, a professor of political science at the University of Canterbury and specialist of Chinese politics, wrote that China’s foreign influence activities have accelerated under Chinese President Xi Jinping and have the potential to undermine the sovereignty and integrity of the political system of targeted states.
In terms of foreign interference by China, “we’re not used to seeing this on such a global scale,” she said in a telephone interview with CBC News. “We haven’t seen anything like this from any country for a very long time.”
Indeed, this is the first time since Mao’s era that China is assertively trying to meddle in the internal politics and societies of countries on nearly every continent, according to Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations.”
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6773020
The Chinese approach appears so far not to discriminate much between the government and the opposition political parties. There are some favourites such as the Canaduan Liberal party and the Australian Labour party.
The Chinese plans to the degree that they are known look as if they are in violation of baby countries’ prohibition of foreign states’ political involvement. The effort looks more clumsy and enthusiastic than professional and effective.
China may rue this foreign political adventure. At one level it invites parties from other countries to get involved in internal Chinese politics as either tit for tat or to influence Chinese operations in their bailiwick.
It is a serious question now in light of China’s new policy of internationizing domestic politics.
Should the Kuomingtang, the pre-war Chinese Nationalist Party, reinvigorate its mainland operations? The KMT remains a force in Taiwan. Legacy KMT factions still get “elected” to the mainland PRC assemblies.
The question is mute as the KMT does not address the issue remaining focused only on Taiwan.