The administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is working overtime to sell the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) it concluded with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the US. Over the past few weeks, several think tanks and academic institutions, such as George Washington University, have hosted seminars on the topic, singing the praises of the ECFA and highlighting its benefits.
On Wednesday, Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) made an appearance at the American Enterprise Institute. She not only painted a rosy picture of the ECFA, but also claimed that the Ma administration has transformed a tense and often confrontational and provocative situation into one of peace and stability. If only it were that easy.
While it may be true that the PRC has been less threatening to Taiwan during the past couple of years, this is perhaps because the leaders in Beijing feel that the Ma administration is leading Taiwan in their direction. This position negates the key point that China has not reduced its missiles aimed at Taiwan and has continued its military buildup. So who is kidding whom?
Lai also seemed to believe that the ECFA would reduce Taiwan’s isolation in the international community and that Taiwan would be able to establish extensive free-trade agreements with other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
“This is a decision for Taiwan to make, because we are a WTO member,” she said.
However, when news of a possible trade agreement with Singapore surfaced a day later, China insisted that this could only be done with its blessing, under the “one China” principle.
Another interesting statement made by Lai was that “the Republic of China is a sovereign and independent country. This is an established fact, which mainland China cannot deny.”
The problem is that under the Ma government’s definition of the “Republic of China,” China (or the “mainland”) is part of the ROC. Over the past few decades, confusion has been caused by the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) claim to govern all of China. If the Ma government really wanted to resolve the decades-old problem, it would urge China to accept Taiwan as a friendly neighbor and end its anachronistic claims to sovereignty over Taiwan, instead of blurring the sovereignty conflict by claiming it doesn’t exist.
Lai also bravely urged China to end its military deployment and renounce the use of force in trying to resolve differences. However, developments elsewhere show that China is all too eager to resort to force if things don’t go its way: The repression in Tibet and East Turkestan are highly illustrative of the frame of mind of the leaders in Beijing. Their military and political coercion of Taiwan, while urging quick agreements that integrate the cross-strait economies, suggests that they have an end game that conflicts with Taiwan’s democratic way of life.
During the past couple of months, we have observed fresh examples of the lack of willingness on Beijing’s part to be a responsible stakeholder. On the Korean Peninsula it has done very little to rein in North Korea, to the point where that country is now threatening a “physical response” to joint military exercises by the US and South Korea. In the South China Sea, it has shown such belligerence and aggressiveness that at last month’s ASEAN Regional Forum meeting in Hanoi, 11 Asian countries and the US expressed deep concern.
So, are these developments grounds for the rosy optimism displayed by Lai in Washington? It would be good if Lai would wake up and come back to the real world.
Gerrit van der Wees is editor of Taiwan Communique, a publication based in Washington.
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