Analysis: Lai’s New Year Speech More Substantive Than Xi Jinping's

TaiwanPlus News

Political analyst Courtney Donovan Smith looks at the differences in tone and substance between the New Year addresses given by Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Transcript

00:00Donovan, yesterday, President of China Xi Jinping held his New Year's Day speech, while

00:05early this morning, President Lai Ching-te of Taiwan held his New Year's Day speech.

00:10What marked differences in tone did you notice?

00:14I think actually of the two, the one that was a little bit more flowery and positive

00:19sounding at least was Xi Jinping's actually.

00:23He literally started out quite right near the beginning, talking about, you know, we've

00:28seen winds and rain, but we've all seen rainbows.

00:32It was also shorter, which was interesting.

00:35However, a lot of it was just propaganda.

00:37A lot of it was just outright not true.

00:40I think that William Lai's speech did also have some flowery language in it, of course,

00:46but it was a little bit more concrete and down to earth.

00:48It was also considerably longer.

00:52I think that the important part of this speech, and it may go down in history, depending on

00:59how things pan out going forward, in the tussle between the opposition parties and the DPP.

01:08Very specifically, he brought up that he intended to follow the constitution.

01:14He reiterated this in no uncertain terms, which means he's signaling that he's going

01:21to go ahead with the laws passed, although he did specify that he's going to bounce

01:28them back to the legislature to be reconsidered, which is a constitutional right.

01:35I want to go back there to something that you said at the beginning, where you noticed

01:38Xi Jinping used a bit more flowery language.

01:41Do you believe that this is because President Lai Ching-da inside a democratic system and

01:47because of the challenges that he is facing in the legislature right now, has to talk

01:51a bit more frankly and use a bit more substance to reach out to his constituents?

01:58Well, yes.

02:01President Lai is accountable to the public.

02:05He was democratically elected and so therefore is accountable.

02:09I think that it's a little bit more in his interest and for the interest of the country

02:14specifically, is for him to use this platform to talk about issues of substance.

02:23Now, of course, a lot of it is patting himself and his administration on the back, which

02:29you're entitled to do if it's a little self-serving, but he did also bring in some substance, which

02:36is important.

02:38When given a chance, it's good to see the president communicating issues of substance.

02:43One of the cross-state relations matters which President Lai brought up was that he

02:47would like to see more exchanges with China.

02:52What do you think is behind the strategic positioning of this inside his speech and

02:57is he positioning himself where he is offering a position of goodwill?

03:03I think that he wants to position himself as appearing to be conciliatory and as offering

03:10an olive branch.

03:11However, I think he's pretty certain that the Chinese side might accept a little bit

03:22of this.

03:23Now, on the other hand, I do think that that also is in many ways was more of an olive

03:29branch to the KMT and the TPP as well.

03:33I think he was sort of signaling to them that he's not hardline.

03:37He's also signaling to the Americans and also people locally as well as analysts and

03:44journalists that he's not the hardcore, rabid, independence activist that he's been portrayed

03:52as.

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