Local media headlined yesterday that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was irate over the Philippines’ refusal to offer an official apology for its deportation of 14 Taiwanese fraud suspects to China, with footage released from the Presidential Office showing Ma, in his meeting with Philippine President Benigno Aquino III’s special envoy, Philippine Senator Manuel Roxas, solemnly chiding Manila for committing mistakes in its extradition process that were deemed inappropriate behavior for a democratic country.
Okay, so the president was angry. Now what?
Indeed, without spelling out specific stringent measures on the spot to substantiate Ma’s degree of fury over the Philippines’ apparent lack of respect for Taiwan’s sovereignty, it is no wonder that some have come to dismiss Ma’s display of ire on Tuesday as mere show, lacking any real teeth in upholding Taiwan’s sovereignty and dignity.
We previously heard Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) say that an apology by Roxas was a necessary condition for his visit. Yet, following Roxas’ arrival, the envoy has clearly stated that he was not authorized to make any apologies during his visit.
This blatant lapse is unnerving and deeply disturbing. Was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs aware beforehand that Manila’s envoy was not going to apologize? If the ministry did not obtain such information ahead of time, it would indicate the degree of seriousness in the communication breakdown between Taipei and Manila. If the ministry did know, why then, was Roxas in Taiwan? Why did the ministry proceed to arrange for Roxas to meet with the president? While both the ministry and Presidential Office cited diplomatic courtesy as the reason for the Ma-Roxas meeting, the real impression left with the general public, however, was how the Ma administration had degraded the nation’s dignity and that its self-belittling action showed signs of cowardice toward another country that had displayed a complete lack of respect for Taiwan’s sovereignty to begin with.
The ministry noted that points of consensus reached between Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) and Roxas on Monday included Manila’s plan to take punitive action against officials involved in wrongdoing during the deportation process. According to Yang, Taipei would interpret that as “a kind of apology.”
Pathetic and truly wretched. Not only did the Ma administration fail to stand firm on a non-negotiable demand for Taiwan’s sovereignty and respect, it appeared instead to be helping Manila look for an exit amidst the whole brouhaha.
If this is the way Ma and his officials work in concluding diplomatic spats pertaining to Taiwanese sovereignty and national dignity, one can’t really blame Manila for not respecting Taiwan when it appears Taipei seems to take its own sovereignty and dignity just as lightly.
Just as in the case of Taiwanese taekwondo athlete Yang Shu-chun’s (楊淑君) controversial disqualification from the Asian Games in China in November, in which South Korea without rhyme or reason became the target of many Taiwanese’s anger, the Philippines should not be the party at which Ma directs his anger. Political watchers could easily note China’s invisible hand in the affair no matter how Beijing may have schemed to make it appear as if the spat was only a matter between Taipei and Manila.
Sure enough, we have yet to hear Ma or his government officials utter a word of protest or strong words demanding Beijing return the 14 Taiwanese suspects.
Taiwanese do have a right to be livid from this situation, for they have witnessed their government dare to only admonish the Philippines yet remain silent in the face of the Chinese elephant in the room — all because of a president who continues to base his China policy on a fictitious “1992 consensus” that undermines Taiwan’s dignity and international standing.
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
RSS