In front of Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), French President Jacques Chirac recently criticized Taiwan, saying it was committing a grave error by planning a referendum because a referendum could threaten regional stability. Of course this was said and done purely to satisfy China.
Chirac's attitude comes as a shock. He not only supported China in its violation of the spirit of the French Revolution but also blatantly interfered in another nation's domestic politics.
France is a republic with a 200-year history of practicing referendums. Chirac's opposition to another nation's referendum puts his own country to shame.
The real explanation for Chirac's attitude is that he wants to sell weapons to China to boost France's economy. After kissing China's butt, Chirac immediately demanded that the EU lift its arms embargo against China. His demand was rejected and, furthermore, he was rebuked by Graham Watson, head of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament, who said this proposal would benefit a communist dictatorship renowned for violating human rights.
EU foreign ministers believe Beijing has a bad human rights record and is adopting a belligerent stance toward Taiwan. If this was not a slap in Chirac's face for his opposition to the referendum, at the very least it embarrassed him.
But this is not the only defeat for Chirac. The US Department of State also voiced its opposition to the idea of France and the EU lifting the weapons embargo against China.
Chirac lost face in his harsh opposition to the US-led war in Iraq, and now he is further berated by Washington. Nevertheless attempting to curry favor with Beijing, he has put himself in this embarrassing situation.
In selling out Taiwan to cozy up to China, Chirac was not supported by the French parliament. When Hu went to Paris' City Hall to deliver a speech, demonstrators gathered outside the venue, and 327 of the total 577 councilors refused to attend the meeting. Some even stood protesting with pieces of white tape over their mouths. This made things ugly for Hu and Chirac.
French media also took aim at Chirac. Major print media, including Le Monde, Liberation and Le Figaro, ran front-page stories criticizing Chirac's leaning toward China and introduced Taiwan and its referendum in great detail.
The French TV channel TF1, which enjoys the highest ratings in the country, reported in its evening news broadcast about Taiwan's past and present -- from female factory workers to Taiwan's rapid economic growth to President Chen Shui-bian (
What carries more weight is that the report quoted opinion polls saying that only 0.5 percent of the Taiwanese people support reunification with China. The French media displayed Taiwan's image in a positive light to repudiate Chirac's pro-China, anti-Taiwan attitude.
China has mustered the force of the whole nation to unite with the world's superpowers to put pressure on Taiwan's proposed referendum.
The pan-blue camp has said that holding a referendum is meaningless. But actually it is very meaningful. A small referendum immediately manifests the predicament facing Taiwan and the threat posed by China's missiles.
Before votes have even been cast on the referendum, the Taiwan issue has already been internationalized. The development of Taiwan's democracy might soon also come into the international spotlight. From a long-term point of view, this does only good and no harm.
Chin Heng-wei is the editor in chief of Contemporary Monthly magazine. Translated by Jackie Lin
A failure by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to respond to Israel’s brilliant 12-day (June 12-23) bombing and special operations war against Iran, topped by US President Donald Trump’s ordering the June 21 bombing of Iranian deep underground nuclear weapons fuel processing sites, has been noted by some as demonstrating a profound lack of resolve, even “impotence,” by China. However, this would be a dangerous underestimation of CCP ambitions and its broader and more profound military response to the Trump Administration — a challenge that includes an acceleration of its strategies to assist nuclear proxy states, and developing a wide array
Twenty-four Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers are facing recall votes on Saturday, prompting nearly all KMT officials and lawmakers to rally their supporters over the past weekend, urging them to vote “no” in a bid to retain their seats and preserve the KMT’s majority in the Legislative Yuan. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which had largely kept its distance from the civic recall campaigns, earlier this month instructed its officials and staff to support the recall groups in a final push to protect the nation. The justification for the recalls has increasingly been framed as a “resistance” movement against China and
Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), former chairman of Broadcasting Corp of China and leader of the “blue fighters,” recently announced that he had canned his trip to east Africa, and he would stay in Taiwan for the recall vote on Saturday. He added that he hoped “his friends in the blue camp would follow his lead.” His statement is quite interesting for a few reasons. Jaw had been criticized following media reports that he would be traveling in east Africa during the recall vote. While he decided to stay in Taiwan after drawing a lot of flak, his hesitation says it all: If
Saturday is the day of the first batch of recall votes primarily targeting lawmakers of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). The scale of the recall drive far outstrips the expectations from when the idea was mooted in January by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘). The mass recall effort is reminiscent of the Sunflower movement protests against the then-KMT government’s non-transparent attempts to push through a controversial cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014. That movement, initiated by students, civic groups and non-governmental organizations, included student-led protesters occupying the main legislative chamber for three weeks. The two movements are linked
RSS