President Chen Shui-bian (
China's Taiwan Affairs Office, in its battle against independence and democracy, claimed in a statement on May 17 that "if Taiwan's leaders should move to provoke major incidents of `Taiwanese independence,' the Chinese people will crush their schemes firmly and thoroughly at any cost."
In response to Chen's speech, Taiwan Affairs Office Spokesman Zhang Mingqing (
Although it has been nearly seven years since Hong Kong's handover to China, the people of Hong Kong are increasingly displeased at its deteriorating economy, as well as Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's (
Even more oddly, in the run-up to the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, China's Department of National Security accused Taiwan of using overseas dissidents to collect information through family and friends in China, as well as helping to organize a Chinese opposition party abroad. There seem to be some inconsistencies in the timing, location and people involved, however. The directors of Taiwan's intelligence and cross-strait affairs agencies have denied these claims. This is clearly an attempt by Beijing to kill two birds with one stone: to attack overseas organizations of Chinese dissidents and tarnish Taiwan's image.
China's measures against independence and democracy are familiar to many people in Taiwan. During the period of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule, communists, advocates of Taiwanese independence and people "outside the party" were viewed as a "three-in-one" enemy. The KMT's high-pressure tactics forced many democracy advocates into exile. Although these hateful methods delayed the emergence of democracy in Taiwan, they also strengthened democratic ideology so that it was able to respond more powerfully when its time came.
The KMT, which seemed set to rule for 10,000 years, has now been pushed out of office through a popular election which placed the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in power in its stead.
China should study the path taken by Taiwan's democracy, which has become immune to tyrannical methods through its experience with the KMT. If China's senior government officials think they can continue to threaten their citizens in China and Hong Kong, they should take a look at what has happened to the KMT, to the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe's communist regimes. The democratic spirit expressed in the phrase "the needs of the people are always in my mind," is the best way to deal with the threat of separatism.
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
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