Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) rushed off to the US on July 10 after the director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Wang Yi (王毅), visited the US. Lai’s trip should have been aimed at erasing any propaganda Wang spread about cross-strait relations. Lai, however, got things mixed up and failed to eliminate erroneous ideas about Taiwan and China. Instead, she followed the old routine of focusing on the home market and propagated what a “great” job President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has done.
Wang’s message was clear. He said China-Taiwan relations are based on the “one China” framework expressed in the so-called “1992 consensus” and anti-Taiwanese independence and that this means Taiwan will be integrated with China. Wang then demanded the US stop military sales to Taiwan and called for the cancelation of the cross-strait median line.
While Lai said China still has missiles aimed at Taiwan and maintains its threat of military force, she suggested China remove that military threat if it really wants to “win the hearts” of the Taiwanese, thus forgetting the purpose of her visit.
By praising the success of the Ma administration’s policies, Lai was trying to show how these policies have helped move cross-strait relations from “mutual denial” to “mutual non-denial.” Hearing this from someone who served in the government of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) makes one wonder about the state of her memory. Under former presidents Lee and Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), the government did not deny the existence of the People’s Republic of China or China; it was only China that did not recognize Taiwan or the Republic of China (ROC) as a sovereign state.
Lai’s praise of “mutual non-denial” is problematic because it is unclear exactly what she was praising. Beijing does not deny that Taiwan is a local government of China, nor does it deny that Taiwan is part of China. What China does deny is that Taiwan or the ROC is a sovereign state.
At least two major errors appeared in a Washington Times interview with Lai. She was quoted as saying that Taiwan is a democratic country, but in the video recording of the interview she used the term “society,” not country. When asked whether 92 percent of Taiwanese really support the Ma administration’s China policies, Lai said the percentage referred to people who support maintaining the “status quo.”
Exactly what type of status quo is to be maintained? “Status quo” can refer to “one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait,” “one China, two governments” or that neither Taiwan nor China has jurisdiction over the other.
Lai let the cat out of the bag when she said the administration’s China policy aims to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. A Hong Kong style “peace and stability” can only be maintained by giving up sovereignty and independence and demoting Taiwan to an autonomous region of China.
The vast majority of Taiwanese define the “status quo” as one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait and peaceful coexistence. It is only on that foundation that mutual non-denial can meet their interests.
James Wang is a media commentator.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
In the event of a war with China, Taiwan has some surprisingly tough defenses that could make it as difficult to tackle as a porcupine: A shoreline dotted with swamps, rocks and concrete barriers; conscription for all adult men; highways and airports that are built to double as hardened combat facilities. This porcupine has a soft underbelly, though, and the war in Iran is exposing it: energy. About 39,000 ships dock at Taiwan’s ports each year, more than the 30,000 that transit the Strait of Hormuz. About one-fifth of their inbound tonnage is coal, oil, refined fuels and liquefied natural gas (LNG),
To counter the CCP’s escalating threats, Taiwan must build a national consensus and demonstrate the capability and the will to fight. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) often leans on a seductive mantra to soften its threats, such as “Chinese do not kill Chinese.” The slogan is designed to frame territorial conquest (annexation) as a domestic family matter. A look at the historical ledger reveals a different truth. For the CCP, being labeled “family” has never been a guarantee of safety; it has been the primary prerequisite for state-sanctioned slaughter. From the forced starvation of 150,000 civilians at the Siege of Changchun
The two major opposition parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), jointly announced on Tuesday last week that former TPP lawmaker Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) would be their joint candidate for Chiayi mayor, following polling conducted earlier this month. It is the first case of blue-white (KMT-TPP) cooperation in selecting a joint candidate under an agreement signed by their chairpersons last month. KMT and TPP supporters have blamed their 2024 presidential election loss on failing to decide on a joint candidate, which ended in a dramatic breakdown with participants pointing fingers, calling polls unfair, sobbing and walking
In recent weeks, Taiwan has witnessed a surge of public anxiety over the possible introduction of Indian migrant workers. What began as a policy signal from the Ministry of Labor quickly escalated into a broader controversy. Petitions gathered thousands of signatures within days, political figures issued strong warnings, and social media became saturated with concerns about public safety and social stability. At first glance, this appears to be a straightforward policy question: Should Taiwan introduce Indian migrant workers or not? However, this framing is misleading. The current debate is not fundamentally about India. It is about Taiwan’s labor system, its
RSS