Is the DPP at its wit's end?

Chen Chu, the Democratic Progressive mayor of Kaohsiung, displayed such innovative thinking in the afterglow of the World Games that the southern Taiwan port city successfully hosted. She came up with a great idea of inviting the Dalai Lama to come to Taiwan to comfort the souls of those who lost their lives in the flood disaster of August 8. She thought she could increase her odds for reelection by putting President Ma Ying-jeou in a bind. Ma was asked in public to grant a visa to the Tibetan leader in defiance of Beijing's opposition. Believing Ma would not dare to offend China, the mayor was certain she could cash in on what the Democratic Progressive Party terms the president's “Sinophobia” to increase her chances of winning a second term in 2010. Ma outdid her. He let the Dalai Lama come.

Then Mayor Chen hit upon another great idea to embarrass President Ma. She had a Kaohsiung film festival organized, where The 10 Conditions of Love, a biopic of Rebiya Kadeer, president of the World Uighur Congress, would be screened. When Chinese tourists started boycotting her special municipality and hoteliers began complaining, she had to reschedule the showing at a library for two days ahead of the small film extravaganza.

Democratic Progressive Party leaders, afraid they might be panned for letting her down, decided to invite Kadeer to visit Taiwan. As a starter, they decided to show more documentaries in Taiwan about the human rights movement in Xinjiang and Tibet. One such film is The 10 Conditions of Love, of course. They also want to invite the personalities featured in those documentaries to come to Taiwan. Kadeer called a press conference in Washington, D.C. to announce she has accepted an invitation to visit Taiwan in December. The invitation was extended to her by Freddy Lim, the lead vocalist of the Taiwanese black metal band Chthonic and founder of the pro-independence organization Guts United, Taiwan. The invitation was sent jointly by the Dr. Chen Wen-cheng Memorial Foundation, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights and the Taiwan Youth Anti-Communist Corps.

Kadeer, a former member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, now lives in exile in the United States. (Remember DPP lawmakers fired a broadside at Premier Wu Den-yih for meeting in Hong Kong with a former member of the conference by the name of Peter Kwok?) She told reporters in Washington she wishes to tell the people of Taiwan the Uighurs are not terrorists, extremists and radicals. A former half-Quisling of Beijing, Kadeer rebelled and was incarcerated before fleeing Xinjiang for exile. Her organization may not be a splinter of the East Turkiestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which has been declared by the United States and the United Nations to be a terrorist group.

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