With Beijing cracking down on "pro-green" Taiwanese businesspeople and entertainers, it has become clear that it is trying to realize political concessions via economic sanctions. This should be a cause for concern in political and business circles.
At a conference last Sunday, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) spoke the truth about Beijing's mentality -- it abhors the democracy and freedom that Taiwan enjoys. The reason is simple: a free, democratic Taiwan is like a mirror that reflects the ugly face of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Given this contrast, it is only natural that China should see Taiwan as an enemy and seek to destroy it.
Both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administrations have failed to implement the "no haste, be patient" policy Lee advocated eight years ago. As a result, many businesspeople brushed off the warnings and rushed to invest in China. But many of the ill consequences that Lee predicted would happen have come to pass.
For example, Lee predicted that by investing in China to expand production, Taiwanese business-people would eventually get caught up in a price war which would destroy their profit margins.
Second, Lee said, the outflow of industry to China would result in a sharp fall in the domestic demand for labor, raising Taiwan's unemployment rate. He also said that China would endeavor to achieve political ends through economic means by keeping the political affiliations of individual companies under tight control -- as the recent Chi Mei incident illustrates.
It is a matter of some regret that, according to figures released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, there has been a significant annual increase in Taiwanese investment in China since the DPP came to power in 2000. In 2002, Taiwan overtook Japan to become China's second-biggest source of foreign investment. This increase is largely a result of the Chen administration's "active opening, effective management" (
Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, and since that time its fledgling democracy has been retreating to such an extent that 500,000 people took to the streets in protest last July. With many Hong Kong businesspeople relocating factories and transferring investment to China, academics based at Hong Kong Polytechnic University have indicated that personal income in Hong Kong has fallen to 1995 levels and that unemployment rose to an all-time high of 8.8 percent in May last year. Is Taiwan heeding their discomfort?
Beijing sees Taiwanese businesses as weapons in the campaign for unification. Those who do not obey are regarded as "poisonous weeds" to be rooted out. This means that not only are businesspeople expected to give their money to China, they are also expected to forego their ability to think critically.
Can our government, which professes with its every breath to love Taiwan, continue to allow factories and money to be relocated to China? It is an absurdity that the DPP government is lending support to its enemies in this economic war, and it is no surprise that Lee has been forced to reprimand the administration.
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
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