American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond Burghardt recently visited Taipei and met leaders of both the ruling and opposition parties. When talking to the media, Burghardt expressed concern over China’s military threats to Taiwan and said Beijing posed a military threat to Taiwan as long as it has missiles aimed at Taiwan and that it should remove them. Perhaps President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government mistakenly believes that some of the messages Burghardt conveyed were in line with their own policies. But the Ma administration is kowtowing to China despite the hundreds of missiles aimed at us. This shows how the Ma administration is obsessed with China while the US continues to keep its wits.
China’s military threat toward Taiwan is not something new. The 23 million people of Taiwan, regardless of their political affiliation and ethnicity, cannot escape the fact that they live each day with the threat of China’s missiles.
However, the administration, which constantly talks about putting Taiwan first and doing what is best for the people of Taiwan, is really only concerned with Beijing’s “one China” principle and its dream that China will give Taiwan some international space.
The government believes simply relying on China will be enough to save Taiwan economically. It has never addressed the military threat that China poses to Taiwan. Perhaps Ma’s team sees the 1,000-plus missiles as something pleasing, not the terrible threat they are.
Why does Burghardt have the courage to demand that China remove its missiles, while the Ma administration appears to care less about them? The reason is simple. The Ma administration has to beg China for many things and it cannot afford to offend Beijing because it sees China as Taiwan’s savior. It’s heavy reliance on China means it does not dare do anything not in line with China’s thinking.
Let’s look at it this way: Ma kowtowed to China for nine months before more than a fraction of the 3,000 Chinese tourists per day that he hoped would save Taiwan’s ailing economy actually started coming here. The Amway China cruise came to Taiwan and the government used 1,000-plus participants and the money they spent here to boast of what a great job it has been doing to bolster the economy. Officials keep talking about the benefits, and even the necessity of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China, but so far there has been no word that Beijing would actually agree to one.
Given these circumstances, how would Ma have the courage to demand that China remove their missiles?
The Taiwanese should not bother dreaming that Ma will make such demands. Neither the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) or the Ma administration have made a formal demand during the cross-strait economic, trade and cultural forum or other cross-strait talks that China remove its missiles. The administration’s cross-strait policies and dependence on China make it appear like a drug addict. It will never be able to kick its China habit. Direct links, Chinese tourism, the Straits Exchange Foundation-Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait pacts and relaxation of the restrictions on Chinese investment all clearly show how the government wants to make Taiwan’s economy completely dependent upon China’s. Once China has control over Taiwan’s core businesses, unification will be a mere formality.
Of course the loosening of trade restrictions and steps toward an ECFA have been welcomed by some businesses, support the government has used as an excuse to ignore public criticism. In terms of cross-strait trade, however, a conflict exists between the interests of those businesses and the public. Employment opportunities will plunge when Taiwanese businesses head to China in search of low-cost labor. Things may get so tough that people will not even be able to afford school lunches for their children. As unemployment rises and real wages drop, income distribution will rapidly deteriorate and we will ultimately see the formation of an M-shaped society where only certain individuals will be able to enjoy the benefits of economic growth.
Beijing has often said that its missiles are meant to guard against Taiwanese independence. The missiles are really aimed at expediting unification. But since this is in line with Ma’s goal of eventual unification, he views the missiles differently from the average Taiwanese and from the US. This difference explains Ma’s lack of regard for public opinion despite his “three noes” policy — no unification, no independence and no use of force.
Ma wants to lock Taiwan’s economy to China so that Chinese investment can flood the country. He is quite happy to postpone military procurements crucial to national defense and reduce the size of the military.
The public must wake up and face reality, no matter how many tourist extravaganza “reality” shows the government keeps throwing in our faces.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations