時論廣場》侯友宜訪美需要回答的事（方恩格）

左起：立委吳怡玎、江啓臣、國民黨總統參選人侯友宜、紐約市警察局長卡班、紐約市警局前副局長莫虎、國民黨副主席夏立言。（侯辦提供）

國民黨總統參選人、新北市長侯友宜已經抵達美國。他此次的訪美旅程名爲「對話與深化的友誼之旅」。以這個名稱在中文裡聽起來可能還不錯，但在英文裡則顯得有些不合適；這個名稱讓人感覺侯友宜試圖爭取美國政府、紐約市和華府智庫專家的支持，然而有鑑於這些地方早已熱烈支持民進黨參選人賴清德，這種可能性非常渺茫。

根據其競選總部的新聞稿，侯市長將到訪4個城市：紐約、新澤西、華府和舊金山。然而，新澤西本身並不是一個城市；這種由侯友宜競選團隊所犯的錯誤，無疑對這趟訪美之旅的開局造成了不利影響。

儘管侯友宜的競選辦公室希望讓大衆相信這次行程是他們自行策畫的，而非國民黨中央所安排，但侯友宜將會被國民黨中央或黨籍立委的許多「監護人」陪同。這些人包括國民黨副主席夏立言、立委江啓臣和吳怡玎、國民黨駐美代表黃介正和副代表秦日新、國立政治大學教授盧業中，以及淡江大學教授李大中。而侯友宜競選辦公室的新聞稿只提到了一位競選辦公室的成員，新聞組召集人張其強。奇怪的是，這份名單中並沒有侯友宜競選辦公室的執行長金溥聰。在馬英九總統任內擔任駐美國代表的金溥聰，怎麼沒陪同訪美呢？

人們不禁好奇，爲什麼侯市長需要那麼多國民黨中央的人陪同他前往華府參加會議。這也許是一種策略，通過發送名片並與同行的人分享他們之前與專家、國會議員和政府官員的會面經驗，來消耗掉很多時間，這樣可以將侯友宜市長髮言或回答問題的時間最小化。

侯友宜還計劃會見《紐約時報》和彭博社。然而，這兩家媒體在臺灣都有派駐記者，侯友宜並不需要特地在訪美的行程中安排時間會面。爲什麼他要在訪美期間會見這些他在臺灣也能夠見到的媒體呢？這顯得非常奇怪，而且訪談中可能會有「出槌」的風險，而侯友宜更需要一名精明的翻譯。

至於在華府與智庫和美國政府官員的會議，真的有必要嗎？侯友宜在華府能夠告訴他們對於關鍵議題的看法，而這些看法又與之前曾表達過的，或是將來他們訪臺時將要表達的有何不同？只要查看一下國民黨在「X」（以前稱爲Twitter）上的帳戶，就可以看到主席朱立倫也經常會見華府的訪客「專家」。

以侯友宜拜訪美國在臺協會（AIT）總部的行程爲例。6月初，侯市長在新北市會見了美國在臺協會主席羅森伯格。那麼，當他在9月中旬再次見到她時，他可能會談論一些與6月時對她談的內容不同的事情嗎？

歸根究柢，智庫學者和美國國會議員只想從侯友宜口中知道一件事：他的兩岸政策爲何？更具體地來說，如果他當選總統，那他的政策是否會恢復九二共識？但願侯友宜能對這個問題給出明確的答案。筆者一貫認爲，臺灣的總統候選人無需訪問美國、日本或新加坡，並與這些國家的政府進行「面試」。這次選舉將會由臺灣選民做出決定，而不是其他國家的政府官員，更不是智庫的「學者」。

而且，實際情況是，侯友宜計劃在華府舉行的任何一個會議，都不會幫助改善他那低迷的民調。相反，衡量這次訪美是否成功更好的方式，是觀察侯友宜與海外僑胞會面的成效。有多少人蔘加了侯友宜在紐約市、新澤西、華盛頓特區和舊金山的活動，然後在明年1月時返臺投票？他們爲侯市長的競選活動捐款了多少錢？如果侯友宜的競選辦公室或國民黨無法回答這些問題，那麼，他們在這次的競選活動可能註定會失敗。

（作者爲美國共和黨前亞太區主席，翻譯：許淳恩）

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Why So Many Chaperones for Hou?

By Ross Darrell Feingold

Former Asia Chairman, Republicans Abroad

Twitter: @RossFeingold

By the time this is published, Chinese Nationalist Party presidential candidate and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih will be in the United States. His trip is named the “Journey for Dialogue and to Deepen Relationships 「對話與深化的友誼之旅」. This title might sound fine in Mandarin, though in English it comes across as a desperate attempt by Hou to obtain support from the United States government or the think tank “experts” in New York City and Washington DC he will, all of which is highly unlikely to happen given their enthusiastic support for Democratic Progressive Party candidate William Lai.

According to the campaign headquarters press release, Mayor Hou will visit four “cities”: New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, and San Francisco. New Jersey is not a city, and such an error by Hou’s campaign staff is not a good start to the trip.

Even if Hou’s campaign office wants us to believe that the campaign office, and not Chinese Nationalist Party headquarters planned the trip, Hou will be accompanied by many “chaperones” from the party headquarters or the Legislative Yuan. These include Chinese Nationalist Party vice chairman Andrew Hsia, Legislator Johnny Chiang, Legislator Wu I-Ding, Chinese Nationalist Party Representative to the United States Alexander Huang, Chinese Nationalist Party Deputy Representative to the United States Victor Chin, National Chengchi University Professor Lu Yeh-chung, and Tamkang University Professor Li Da-jung. The press release from Hou’s campaign office only noted one person from the campaign office, media aide Chang Chi-chiang.

Missing from this list is King Pu-tsung, the Hou campaign’s CEO (侯辦執行長). This is particularly odd, given that under President Ma Ying-jeou, King served as Representative to the United States from September 2012 to April 2014.

One wonders why Mayor Hou needs so many people from party headquarters to accompany him to his meetings in Washington DC.

Perhaps it is a strategy to waste as much time possible handing out business cards and exchanging stories about previous meetings that the chaperones had with those experts, Members of Congress, or government officials. This will minimize the amount of time Hou has to speak or answer questions.

Hou also plans to meet The New York Times and Bloomberg. Both of these media outlets have journalists in Taipei, and there is no need to take up time on Hou’s itinerary in New York City to meet there. Why would Hou take up time on his trip to the United States meeting media outlets that he could meet in Taipei? This is very peculiar, especially given the risk that “something will go wrong” in the interviews, as Hou needs a translator.

As for the meetings with think tanks and US government officials in Washington DC, are they really necessary? What can Hou tell them in Washington DC about his views on key issues that he hasn’t already said to them, or will say in the future, when they visit Taiwan? One only needs to check the Chinese Nationalist Party’s account on “X” (formerly known as Twitter) to see that Chairman Eric Chu frequently meets visiting “experts” from think tanks in Washington DC.

Let’s take Hou’s visit to the American Institute in Taiwan headquarters as an example. At the beginning of June, Mayor Hou met in New Taipei City with AIT Chairwoman Laura Rosenberg. Is there anything different that Hou might say when he meets her in the middle of September in Virginia versus what he said to her in June in New Taipei?

Ultimately, the think tank scholars and Members of the US Congress only want to know one thing from Hou: What is his policy towards China? Specifically, if he is elected president, will his policy be a return to the “1992 Consensus” or not? Hopefully, Hou will give a direct answer to this question.

This author has consistently opined that Taiwan’s presidential candidates do not need to visit the United States, Japan, or Singapore to “interview” with those governments. This election is for the voters in Taiwan to decide, and not for government officials (and certainly not for think tank “scholars”) in other countries to decide.

And being realistic, none of the meetings Hou plans to have in Washington DC will help Hou improve his dismal poll numbers.

Instead, a better measure of whether the trip is successful is the success of Hou’s meetings with overseas compatriots. How many of those who attend events with Hou in New York City, New Jersey, Washington DC and San Francisco will return to Taiwan in January to vote? How much money did they donate to Hou’s campaign? If Hou’s campaign office or the Chinese Nationalist Party cannot answer these questions, then his campaign might be doomed to fail.