With Taiwan still very much enmeshed in the political conflict between supporters of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and followers of former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Shih Ming-teh's (施明德) anti-Chen campaign, Taiwanese haven't had much time to concern themselves with affairs in the rest of the world.
China has used this opportunity to quietly launch a fresh round of campaigns to gradually absorb Taiwan. In addition to its long-term policy, China has also adopted a number of new approaches.
First, Beijing is attempting to weaken the nation's economy by excluding it from participating in the establishment of a free-trade zone in East Asia. Japan has proposed an East Asian Free Trade Zone that would include the 10 member states of ASEAN, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.
However, because of China's objections, Taiwan is being excluded. If the formation of the trading bloc continues to progress, Taiwan's economy and industrial development is bound to suffer marginalization.
Second, Beijing has stepped up its tactic of bombarding Taiwan with agricultural incentives to befriend farmers here. On Aug. 1 last year, Beijing removed all tariffs for 15 kinds of fruit from Taiwan to ingratiate itself with farmers as part of its "united front" strategy.
Although both Taiwan and China are WTO member states, China has agreed to zero-tariff pacts with certain groups here outside the framework of the WTO. The initial proposal, made to former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (
In April, the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held a cross-strait economic forum in China. Following the forum, China inaugurated experimental cross-strait agricultural cooperation zones in both Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. It also tried to lure Taiwanese farmers' investments and acquire Taiwan's agricultural technologies, talent and capital by designating the establishment of industrial zones in both Fujian and Shandong for Taiwanese farmers to start businesses in China.
The CCP and KMT also plan to hold a forum on cross-strait agricultural cooperation next month in China's Hainan Province. China has implied through the media that it would provide more "incentives" to Taiwanese farmers at the meeting, but in the end, the incentives are designed to acquire investment and technology for China's benefit, not Taiwan's.
Third, China has strengthened its efforts to deny the fact that Taiwan is a nation and has worked to block the word "Taiwan" from appearing in any international organizations that symbolize national sovereignty.
While the nation recently discussed the feasibility of joining the UN using "Taiwan," China made efforts to oppose this and boycotted the US "note" that was appended to the UN Conventional Arms Registry (UNCAR), which showed US arms sales to Taiwan.
As a result, the UN decided that only the transfer of conventional weapons involving member states of the UN has to be reported to the UNCAR, forcing the US to stop registering its transfer of arms to Taiwan.
Clearly, China is adopting a systematic approach toward annexing Taiwan. If the people here have yet to become aware of Beijing's plot and continue to be entangled in the meaningless debates about the future of the president, then Taiwan will soon be forced off the world stage altogether.
Margot Chen is a research fellow at Taiwan Advocates, a think tank initiated by former president Lee Teng-hui.
TRANSLATED BY DANIEL CHENG
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