It would be very tempting to see a decision by the UN’s top court on Thursday recognizing the legality of Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia as a sign that global support for Taiwanese independence could follow.
In reality, however, Kosovo is a false analogy for Taiwan, one that could encourage some to go down a potentially ruinous path.
For one, Kosovo seceded from a sovereign state, Serbia, something that Taiwan could not achieve, because it is already sovereign. A body cannot engage in “separatism” if it is not part of another entity. The political conflict in the Taiwan Strait is better characterized as irredentism — efforts to “recover” a territory that is culturally or historically related to one’s nation, but that is now run by a separate government. While both situations involve the “separation” of two or more entities, the dynamics and means of resolving the problem are entirely different.
This raises the question of legality. While it may be difficult to ascertain how legal the breaking away of a territory, such as Kosovo, might be, there is no doubt in international law that efforts to take over a sovereign state — by force if necessary — are illegal. What this tells us is that if legality was the determinant factor in a territory’s ability to be recognized as a legal political entity, Taiwan’s status would have been resolved years ago. That it hasn’t been demonstrates that the UN’s decision on Kosovo notwithstanding, other variables are more important in determining which nations are able to create their own country and which aren’t.
One crucial element is the power — political, economic and ideational — of the body from which the breakaway entity seeks to exist independently and the level of external support for the would-be “separatist.”
In Kosovo’s case, Serbia was a relatively poor Balkan state with a less than formidable military. Its only patron was Russia, which had yet to get back on its feet less than a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union. As for Kosovars, they managed to secure the backing of the world’s most formidable military, along with the largest military alliance, NATO, when the situation turned violent.
For obvious reasons, the odds facing Taiwan are far more challenging, given China’s might and the lack of international political support for a dream that, however legal, would risk undermining regional, if not global, stability.
As such, while the US and NATO could go to war over Kosovo in 1999 at relatively little cost to them, doing so on Taiwan’s behalf would be far more costly, both in human terms and in the severity of the resulting destabilization.
We should also not forget that Thursday’s decision finds its roots in the blood of tens of thousands of innocent people. While NATO came to Kosovars’ assistance to save them from a campaign of ethnic cleansing orchestrated by former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic and his cronies, it was the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) that first used violence, with the aim of inviting disproportionate retaliation by the Serb military and paramilitary forces against KLA militants and civilians, thus gaining international support.
Some people, now that a mere 11 years later Kosovo is a country, may be tempted to conclude that violence is the key to sovereignty. However, one should not apply the idiosyncratic Kosovo template to a situation like Taiwan. In addition, we should not lose sight of the fact that this sovereignty came with a very heavy human cost and gave birth to a nation that remains riddled by instability and the threat of future conflict.
That Taiwan has a legal case for independence, but almost no chance of seeing that realized, is a grave injustice but a reality. False analogies and violence will not take us any closer to that goal.
When former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) first took office in 2016, she set ambitious goals for remaking the energy mix in Taiwan. At the core of this effort was a significant expansion of the percentage of renewable energy generated to keep pace with growing domestic and global demands to reduce emissions. This effort met with broad bipartisan support as all three major parties placed expanding renewable energy at the center of their energy platforms. However, over the past several years partisanship has become a major headwind in realizing a set of energy goals that all three parties profess to want. Tsai
An elderly mother and her daughter were found dead in Kaohsiung after having not been seen for several days, discovered only when a foul odor began to spread and drew neighbors’ attention. There have been many similar cases, but it is particularly troubling that some of the victims were excluded from the social welfare safety net because they did not meet eligibility criteria. According to media reports, the middle-aged daughter had sought help from the local borough warden. Although the warden did step in, many services were unavailable without out-of-pocket payments due to issues with eligibility, leaving the warden’s hands
Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Randhir Jaiswal told a news conference on Jan. 9, in response to China’s latest round of live-fire exercises in the Taiwan Strait: “India has an abiding interest in peace and stability in the region, in view of our trade, economic, people-to-people and maritime interests. We urge all parties to exercise restraint, avoid unilateral actions and resolve issues peacefully without threat or use of force.” The statement set a firm tone at the beginning of the year for India-Taiwan relations, and reflects New Delhi’s recognition of shared interests and the strategic importance of regional stability. While India
A survey released on Wednesday by the Taiwan Inspiration Association (TIA) offered a stark look into public feeling on national security. Its results indicate concern over the nation’s defensive capability as well as skepticism about the government’s ability to safeguard it. Slightly more than 70 percent of respondents said they do not believe Taiwan has sufficient capacity to defend itself in the event of war, saying there is a lack of advanced military hardware. At the same time, 62.5 percent opposed the opposition’s efforts to block the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.6 billion) special defense budget. More than half of respondents — 56.4
RSS