The recent US-China Joint Statement suffers from intellectual laziness when it applauds the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and China. Why applaud an unsustainable policy that undermines the current international trade status and sovereignty of Taiwan and supports a government that appears to consider democratic Taiwan a part of China and thus goes against the wishes of the vast majority of Taiwanese?
No matter if the backing of ECFA is a result of intellectual laziness or not, it supports China’s political engineering with the ultimate goal of annexing Taiwan. This runs against Taiwanese wishes and is not sustainable.
On the surface, the ECFA seems like a great breakthrough in a troubled relationship, providing hope for a peaceful development in the near future. The assumption appears to be that trade and dialogue will lead to peace and prosperity. The intellectually lazy politicians will be satisfied with such fantasies and thus refrain from asking critical questions about the optimistic buzzwords that are easy to sell to the international community.
Why not jump on this bandwagon with positive thinking and openly support the ECFA? Because the ECFA undermines Taiwan’s hard-won international trade status in the WTO as well as its sovereignty. The ECFA was signed between two NGOs from Taiwan and China, the Straits Exchange Foundation and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) respectively, and not between two legal members of the WTO. The trade status appears to be further undermined by the fact that the ECFA has not yet been submitted to the WTO as expected, despite the pact going into force on Jan. 1.
The political symbolism is hard to misunderstand. China appears in the international press as the responsible nation entering dialogue with Taiwan, even though Beijing has not altered its position one inch. It continues to consider Taiwan a part of China. Recently, ARATS Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) stated that the negotiations were based on the so-called “1992 consensus,” even though its existence is widely disputed, and opposition to Taiwanese independence.
The whole package of agreements between Taiwan and China is increasingly leaving the international community with the impression that Taiwan is a part of China, which Taiwan’s government applauds. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) even considers himself the president of China.
The vast majority of Taiwanese want Taiwan to be independent and surveys from the Mainland Affairs Council reveal that more than 80 percent of the public rejects any formulation of a “one China” system. Moreover, identification with Taiwan has been increasing over the past 20 years in spite of Taiwan having a China-leaning government since 2008. By applauding the ECFA, the US-China Joint Statement is increasing the gap between the wishes of Taiwanese and the imagined goal of both Ma’s administration and international policymakers. This will only lead to trouble and increasing tensions in Taiwan. It is time to respect the wishes of Taiwanese rather than follow the fantasies of intellectually lazy politicians.
Michael Danielsen is the chairman of Taiwan Corner.
Is a new foreign partner for Taiwan emerging in the Middle East? Last week, Taiwanese media reported that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) secretly visited Israel, a country with whom Taiwan has long shared unofficial relations but which has approached those relations cautiously. In the wake of China’s implicit but clear support for Hamas and Iran in the wake of the October 2023 assault on Israel, Jerusalem’s calculus may be changing. Both small countries facing literal existential threats, Israel and Taiwan have much to gain from closer ties. In his recent op-ed for the Washington Post, President William
Taiwan-India relations appear to have been put on the back burner this year, including on Taiwan’s side. Geopolitical pressures have compelled both countries to recalibrate their priorities, even as their core security challenges remain unchanged. However, what is striking is the visible decline in the attention India once received from Taiwan. The absence of the annual Diwali celebrations for the Indian community and the lack of a commemoration marking the 30-year anniversary of the representative offices, the India Taipei Association and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center, speak volumes and raise serious questions about whether Taiwan still has a coherent India
A stabbing attack inside and near two busy Taipei MRT stations on Friday evening shocked the nation and made headlines in many foreign and local news media, as such indiscriminate attacks are rare in Taiwan. Four people died, including the 27-year-old suspect, and 11 people sustained injuries. At Taipei Main Station, the suspect threw smoke grenades near two exits and fatally stabbed one person who tried to stop him. He later made his way to Eslite Spectrum Nanxi department store near Zhongshan MRT Station, where he threw more smoke grenades and fatally stabbed a person on a scooter by the roadside.
Recent media reports have again warned that traditional Chinese medicine pharmacies are disappearing and might vanish altogether within the next 15 years. Yet viewed through the broader lens of social and economic change, the rise and fall — or transformation — of industries is rarely the result of a single factor, nor is it inherently negative. Taiwan itself offers a clear parallel. Once renowned globally for manufacturing, it is now best known for its high-tech industries. Along the way, some businesses successfully transformed, while others disappeared. These shifts, painful as they might be for those directly affected, have not necessarily harmed society
RSS