Ma switches support to Treaty of Taipei, but why?

At a ceremony held yesterday to unveil a bronze sculpture of ROC and Japanese representatives signing the April 28, 1952 “Treaty of Taipei” (see TT Treaty confirmed sovereignty: Ma) ROC President Ma Ying-jeou claimed that the 57-year-old document affirmed the transfer of Taiwan’s sovereignty from Japan to the Republic of China.

This represents a clear shift from his previous claim that it was the 1943 “Cairo Declaration” that did so.

... Independence activists, however, doubt the validity of the 1943 declaration, saying it was little more than a press release and cite the 1952 treaty to argue that Taiwan’s international status remains undefined.

... On Monday former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) had challenged Ma to declare “two Chinas” and to apologize for citing the Cairo Declaration as the KMT’s rationale that Taiwan is part of China and that the ROC is the legal government of Taiwan.

... [She] said Ma’s attendance at yesterday’s ceremony was tantamount to recognizing the Treaty of Taipei. … She also urged the president to modify high school history books to show that the ROC was not the legitimate government of Taiwan.

Clearly that is not going to happen. But it is good to see somebody from the opposition DPP continuing to make articulate, reasoned arguments keeping attention on the current administrations antics and shortcomings.

The rest of the opposition is engaging in cantancorous infighting that is sadly reminiscent of the UK’s Labour Party throughout the 1980s, which therefore allowed the Thatcher government too much freedom to exercise its so-called electoral mandate, and similarly of the Conservative Party during most of the current 12-year Blair/Brown Labour government. Opposition splits are only good for the government: the DPP must act quickly.

Perhaps it is Lu's independence from the electoral squabbling that allows her a statesperson-like position, she is not planning to run in the 2012 presidential election, or at least has shown no intention to do so, unlike Chen Shui-bian who has joked (?) about doing so.

Anyway, Ma certainly needs keeping a check on. Just what is he up to with this shift in position? What, for heaven’s sake, is he doing celebrating the 57th anniversary of anything? Let alone a treaty which will reach 60 (the magical number for Chinese) before the end of Ma’s 4-year term.

Is he trying to give the ROC sovereignty over Taiwan just so he can use it as a bargaining chip with China? (If so, then that's something else to worry about.)