In his April 30 interview with CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) declared: “We will never ask the Americans to fight for Taiwan. This is something that is very, very clear.”
In other words, any dispute between Taiwan and China is a domestic affair and the US has no business interfering.
Since assuming office as president of the Republic of China two years ago, Ma has implemented many measures to advance his goal of surrendering Taiwan’s sovereignty to Beijing. This includes downgrading Taiwan’s international status, demolishing Taiwan’s democratic institutions (freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, judicial independence), opening the nation to Chinese white-collar workers and students, forcing the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement despite opposition by a considerable segment of the population and enfeebling Taiwan’s military forces.
With the latest outburst, it is now very clear that Ma plans to sign a peace accord with China and offer Taiwan up to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) on a silver platter before Hu leaves office in October 2012.
Ma is betraying the people of Taiwan, who were deceived by his promise to protect their right to self-determination, by subverting the Republic of China government to which he has pledged allegiance.
So what can the Taiwanese do to preserve their liberty, property and dignity? Many people are counting on a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) victory in the 2012 presidential election. With Ma’s low approval rating, this strategy may seem sensible, but it is not wise for freedom-loving Taiwanese to devote most of their energy and resources to the pursuit of electoral victory.
First, the DPP’s chances of regaining the presidency are small. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) still dominates the media. Its black gold electoral machine is solidly entrenched in rural areas and small towns. It still has vast financial resources (which can be buttressed by Beijing) to buy votes. The KMT-dominated legislature could pass a law enabling hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese businesspeople residing in China to send in absentee ballots and the Central Election Commission is now controlled by the KMT and its allies, who are not known for their love of fair play.
Second, winning the presidency may mean little, if the KMT government has already signed a peace accord with Beijing. If the new president tried to abrogate such a capitulation accord, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could threaten to invade.
This does not mean that the Taiwanese should give up fighting the alien rule of the KMT through the ballot box. Such efforts should most certainly continue. The election of the mayors of the five major municipalities at the end of this year is important because victory would give the DPP control of the local police force, which should help restore freedom of assembly and peaceful protest and in countering the infiltration of Taiwan by Chinese intelligence and PLA agents. The point is one should not put all one’s eggs in one basket.
In terms of stopping Ma’s intensifying efforts to make Taiwan part of a de facto “one China,” massive street demonstrations are urgently needed.
If 1 million protesters periodically rally in the streets of Taipei, that will attract media attention worldwide. It is now the only way to let the international community know that the great majority of Taiwanese reject rule by the Chinese Communist Party and prefer to keep their hard-won freedoms.
Another objective would be to paralyze the government and compel Ma’s resignation. This could be achieved by surrounding the Presidential office and/or the legislature on a continuous, round-the-clock basis with a smaller contingent of 5,000 to 10,000 protesters. These volunteers could come from all around Taiwan on a rotating basis. Such a sustained effort would, of course, require planning, discipline and organization. It would also demand the unity and cooperation of all Taiwanese organizations that support Taiwan’s survival as an independent, democratic state.
In 1776, Thomas Jefferson proclaimed in the US Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government ... ”
What was true in the US in 1776 is just as true in Taiwan today.
Li Thian-hok is a freelance commentator based in Pennsylvania.
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