时论广场》侯友宜访美需要回答的事（方恩格）

左起：立委吴怡玎、江启臣、国民党总统参选人侯友宜、纽约市警察局长卡班、纽约市警局前副局长莫虎、国民党副主席夏立言。（侯办提供）

国民党总统参选人、新北市长侯友宜已经抵达美国。他此次的访美旅程名为「对话与深化的友谊之旅」。以这个名称在中文里听起来可能还不错，但在英文里则显得有些不合适；这个名称让人感觉侯友宜试图争取美国政府、纽约市和华府智库专家的支持，然而有鉴于这些地方早已热烈支持民进党参选人赖清德，这种可能性非常渺茫。

根据其竞选总部的新闻稿，侯市长将到访4个城市：纽约、新泽西、华府和旧金山。然而，新泽西本身并不是一个城市；这种由侯友宜竞选团队所犯的错误，无疑对这趟访美之旅的开局造成了不利影响。

尽管侯友宜的竞选办公室希望让大众相信这次行程是他们自行策画的，而非国民党中央所安排，但侯友宜将会被国民党中央或党籍立委的许多「监护人」陪同。这些人包括国民党副主席夏立言、立委江启臣和吴怡玎、国民党驻美代表黄介正和副代表秦日新、国立政治大学教授卢业中，以及淡江大学教授李大中。而侯友宜竞选办公室的新闻稿只提到了一位竞选办公室的成员，新闻组召集人张其强。奇怪的是，这份名单中并没有侯友宜竞选办公室的执行长金溥聪。在马英九总统任内担任驻美国代表的金溥聪，怎么没陪同访美呢？

人们不禁好奇，为什么侯市长需要那么多国民党中央的人陪同他前往华府参加会议。这也许是一种策略，通过发送名片并与同行的人分享他们之前与专家、国会议员和政府官员的会面经验，来消耗掉很多时间，这样可以将侯友宜市长发言或回答问题的时间最小化。

侯友宜还计划会见《纽约时报》和彭博社。然而，这两家媒体在台湾都有派驻记者，侯友宜并不需要特地在访美的行程中安排时间会面。为什么他要在访美期间会见这些他在台湾也能够见到的媒体呢？这显得非常奇怪，而且访谈中可能会有「出槌」的风险，而侯友宜更需要一名精明的翻译。

至于在华府与智库和美国政府官员的会议，真的有必要吗？侯友宜在华府能够告诉他们对于关键议题的看法，而这些看法又与之前曾表达过的，或是将来他们访台时将要表达的有何不同？只要查看一下国民党在「X」（以前称为Twitter）上的帐户，就可以看到主席朱立伦也经常会见华府的访客「专家」。

以侯友宜拜访美国在台协会（AIT）总部的行程为例。6月初，侯市长在新北市会见了美国在台协会主席罗森伯格。那么，当他在9月中旬再次见到她时，他可能会谈论一些与6月时对她谈的内容不同的事情吗？

归根究柢，智库学者和美国国会议员只想从侯友宜口中知道一件事：他的两岸政策为何？更具体地来说，如果他当选总统，那他的政策是否会恢复九二共识？但愿侯友宜能对这个问题给出明确的答案。笔者一贯认为，台湾的总统候选人无需访问美国、日本或新加坡，并与这些国家的政府进行「面试」。这次选举将会由台湾选民做出决定，而不是其他国家的政府官员，更不是智库的「学者」。

而且，实际情况是，侯友宜计划在华府举行的任何一个会议，都不会帮助改善他那低迷的民调。相反，衡量这次访美是否成功更好的方式，是观察侯友宜与海外侨胞会面的成效。有多少人参加了侯友宜在纽约市、新泽西、华盛顿特区和旧金山的活动，然后在明年1月时返台投票？他们为侯市长的竞选活动捐款了多少钱？如果侯友宜的竞选办公室或国民党无法回答这些问题，那么，他们在这次的竞选活动可能注定会失败。

（作者为美国共和党前亚太区主席，翻译：许淳恩）

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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 「对话与深化的友谊之旅」. 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 (侯办执行长). 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.