Just days after the scuffle between pan-green camp supporters and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Vice Chairman Zhang Mingqing (張銘清) in Tainan last Tuesday, the Democratic Progressive Party held a rally in Taipei on Saturday to protest tainted foods from China and the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). This has added uncertainty to ARATS Chairman Chen Yunlin’s (陳雲林) visit.
Many of the Ma administration’s policies have disappointed the public and its political checks have repeatedly bounced. With its approval rating still low, the Ma administration has had no choice but to hold onto its cross-strait policies and arrange a visit by Chen.
Ma remarked recently that he would “do his best to achieve the goal of signing a cross-strait peace agreement during his term in office” and that “there will be no war across the Taiwan Strait in the next four years.”
It is not difficult to see that the government wants to use a meeting between Ma and Chen to divert public and media attention to give the impression to the international community that cross-strait relations have improved greatly.
The major pro-US countries are pleased to see cross-strait tensions thawing and cross-strait talks resuming. The outgoing administration of US President George W. Bush and US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama have both recognized the Ma administration’s efforts to promote cross-strait reconciliation.
However, just because the international community looks forward to cross-strait peace does not mean that the Ma government should curry favor with Beijing by compromising Taiwan’s sovereignty and national interests.
This is an extremely risky move.
The US may ignore the malicious intent hiding behind China’s smiles, but Ma, as the president who won more than 7.6 million Taiwanese votes, must not abuse the powers entrusted to him to achieve his own ends.
Ma said in an interview with an international media outlet that the relationship between Taiwan and China was a “region-to-region relationship” and that he would try to sign a peace agreement with China. If Ma really does meet with Chen, the international community will inevitably think that Taiwan is a part of China.
It is unnecessary to say that Beijing always does one thing to Taiwan while saying another to the international community. The international impression of reconciliation on the surface — but unification in reality — constructed by the Ma administration and China will severely damage Taiwan’s democracy and sovereignty.
With an approval rating of only 20 percent, Ma has turned a deaf ear to the fact that the majority of the public wants to maintain the status quo — “Taiwan is an independent, sovereign state.”
Ma has attempted to take advantage of public calls for a better economy to indirectly promote cross-strait policies that are not agreed upon by the people of Taiwan and which could lead to an international perception that both sides are seeking unification.
The Taiwanese people need to unite to let the international community understand that the future of our nation can only be decided in a democratic way by the 23 million people of Taiwan. No single party or individual should sacrifice Taiwan in order to achieve their own goals.
Liu Shih-chung is a member of the Advisory Committee at Taiwan Thinktank and a visiting scholar at the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution.
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