Sat, May 08, 2004 page8

• Letter

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  Hold your horses, please

  Since the presidential election campaign began, Taiwan's visibility in international news reports has increased. Hundreds of journalists from around the world gathered here to witness the election's outcome.

  Despite the post-election social and political turmoil, the political situation has cooled down in recent weeks, and so has Taiwan's profile in the international media.

  The issues that the global media were most interested in covering were President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) policy toward China and his controversial defensive referendum.

  Suffice it to say that A-bian (阿扁) failed to achieve his referendum agenda, yet that failure effectively clarified Taiwan's security issues for the world at large. Perhaps making this point was what he actually intended to accomplish, rather than the passage of the referendum.

  A-bian has thus far elevated the level of global awareness of China's tyrannical policies, particularly of the hundreds of missiles aimed at Taiwan.

  Nowadays when I talk with someone in Canada who might not even know where Taiwan is, chances are she or he knows that Taiwan has a serious problem with its neighbor China. Based on that fact alone, A-bian deserves 100 percent credit for sending out this message so effectively.

  However, a more serious problem confronting Taiwan's security is not its inability to further publicize China's military threat. It is rather the post-facto clean-up resolution with the US, Taiwan's most significant ally, which also serves this nation as its weapons manufacturing powerhouse and as a cross-strait balancing element.

  By clean-up resolution, I do not mean any voluntary submission by Taiwan to US-imposed policy alternatives. Instead, Taiwan should restrain itself from further provoking the Americans, and especially the Chinese tyrants.

  To be more specific, the proposed 2006 Constitutional reform ought to be put into the freezer until the heat wave outside cools down. Its reintroduction, or any fundamental change in the current cross-strait status quo, will undoubtedly be interpreted as posing a serious threat to the US' national interest, as well as to China's.

  Washington's fundamental interest is that Taiwan remain a semi-independent country, to be sold as many expensive weapons as possible, for as long as China maintains its missiles and other military threats against Taiwan.

  As for China, as long as its dream of unification remains it can be metaphorically said to be a big baby crying for milk; once he is fed, he will quiet down.

  As for Taiwan, A-bian should lead the nation quietly and discreetly toward a new position within the trilateral framework, toning down the independence rhetoric but significantly upgrading national military capabilities.

  Taiwan should be the fisherman sitting idly waiting for the fish to come in, not the other way around. Let the big boys fight each other!

  Lee Chia-le

  Canada
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