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Defensive referendum can clarify viewpoints

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has declared that a defensive referendum will be held along with the presidential election on March 20. He has, on several occasions, issued guarantees to the people of Taiwan and the international community that a referendum won't involve the unification-independence issue, and that it will not go against the "five noes" that he outlined in his inaugural speech in 2000.

Beijing, however, has decided that holding a defensive referendum means moving towards independence. Many party and government officials, therefore, issue statements criticizing and warning Chen, and they are also exerting heavy pressure on Washington to "deal with" Taiwan's referendum measures.

In response to pressure from China, officials from the US State Department and National Security Council have on several occasions over the past week expressed their concern over the defensive referendum. The State Department has unambiguously said that the US opposes a unification-independence referendum.

In fact, the US government understands Chen's repeated guarantees, and it also understands that a defensive referendum will not involve unification-independence or the "five noes," but in order to calm Beijing, Washington has to make a few harsh statements aimed at Taipei.

China has learned its lesson and currently uses the US to deal with Taiwan. In the belief that the road from Beijing to Taipei leads through Washington, they have kicked the ball over to the Americans. US officials therefore use various moralistic ways of persuading Taiwan in order to let Beijing see that they indeed have worked hard to deal with Taipei. At the same time, the US worries that Beijing (particularly the military hardliners) will force President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and his government to take actions that neither the US nor Taiwan want to see.

The US has, on several occasions, stated that it opposes Chinese use of armed force to solve the conflict with Taiwan. It has also made some preventive assessments of a few possible radical actions by Beijing, and it will have various scenarios prepared in response to a Chinese concentration of arms in southern China, military exercises, or armed threats against Taiwan.

Have the Americans not heard Taiwan's repeated explanations to Washington? We believe that American diplomats shall use various channels to explain to the White House, Congress and public that a defensive referendum is aimed at promoting and deepening Taiwanese democracy. Although the Referendum Law (公投法), as it was passed, isn't perfect, it is a great victory for the people. We look forward to future amendments to the Referendum Law to give appropriate expression to the people's right to hold referendums.

We want to make the Taiwanese public understand that a defensive referendum is necessary for the security of the nation. China has almost 500 missiles aimed at this country. Can we pretend that they do not exist? One of the topics for the defensive referendum is to make the public clarify whether or not they approve of China's removing theses missiles.

Beijing constantly belittles Taiwan, and wants to make it a special administrative region like Hong Kong or Macau. Another topic for the defensive referendum is allowing people to express whether they approve of Beijing's "one country, two systems" model.

A clarification of the public's position on these topics would be persuasive in strengthening national security by making the international community understand that Taiwan does not want to be threatened by, or be part of, China.

Parris Chang is a Democratic Progressive Party legislator.

Translated by Perry Svensson
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