Just as the country was getting ready for Typhoon Nanmadol, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) called a press conference at which he expounded on the so-called “1992 consensus.” He also touched on his “three noes” policy of “no unification, no independence and no use of force.” From the point of view of Taiwanese, Ma’s real “three noes” are “no justice, no use of force and no independence.”
First, there is no justice. In the three years since Ma assumed office, the most distinctive feature of his administration has been injustice in economic, land and judicial affairs. The gap between rich and poor has grown quickly because only business owners and conglomerates have been given the chance to prosper. Farmers are forced to sell their land for exploitation by big business.
More frightening still is that the judicial system has devolved into a party-state judiciary under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). While prosecutors have brought charges against Taiwanese--born former presidents Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), with the intention of breaking them down, ruining their reputations and reducing their influence, they do nothing about the wrongdoings of privileged Mainlanders in the diplomatic service.
Notably, while Chen’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), was promptly stripped of his post as a Kaohsiung City councilor after being convicted of perjury, an appeal court found former KMT legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) not guilty of fraud.
In light of these cases, the political and unjust nature of the judiciary is clear to all.
Next, Ma calls for no use of force. He has proclaimed a diplomatic truce between Taiwan and China, but, more than that, he has implemented a truce in national defense as well. On the one hand he says that he wants to strengthen our national defense by purchasing F-16C/D aircraft from the US, but on the other his administration has only allocated a symbolic NT$2 million (US$69,000) for the item in next year’s defense budget — hardly enough to buy a model plane.
Faced with the relentless growth of China’s military, all Ma can think of is peace across the Taiwan Strait. It reminds one of what happened when, just after World War II, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) sent troops to Taiwan under the command of Chen Yi (陳儀). Many Taiwanese, happy that peace had arrived, went to Keelung and lined up to welcome the army of the “motherland.” Yet it was only a little over a year later that KMT troops massacred Taiwanese following the 228 Incident.
Now two Chinese parties — the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — have joined hands to concoct a scene of “peace” that is lacking in both substance and justice. Do they really expect Taiwanese to fall for it?
Third, Ma’s claim that there will be no negotiations for unification during his presidency is false. Over the past three years, both openly and in secret, he has allowed Taiwan’s political and economic sovereignty to ebb away. He really wants to carry out his late father’s wish of preventing Taiwanese independence and moving step by step toward unification — in other words annexation by China. At his typhoon-day press conference, Ma talked about what he calls the “1992 consensus,” but the real consensus between the KMT and CCP is about the two parties joining hands to lock the sovereign independent nation of Taiwan up in the jail cell of “one China,” never to escape.
“No justice, no use of force and no independence,” these are Ma’s real “three noes.” Taiwanese need to wake up to this and refuse to be brainwashed any longer.
As the saying goes, a lie told often enough becomes the truth. If you listen to falsehoods for too long, it gets hard to decipher the truth. A country whose people allow themselves to be hoodwinked like that is destined for oblivion.
William J.K. Lo is president of the Taiwan United Nations Alliance.
Translated by Julian Clegg
The conflict in the Middle East has been disrupting financial markets, raising concerns about rising inflationary pressures and global economic growth. One market that some investors are particularly worried about has not been heavily covered in the news: the private credit market. Even before the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, global capital markets had faced growing structural pressure — the deteriorating funding conditions in the private credit market. The private credit market is where companies borrow funds directly from nonbank financial institutions such as asset management companies, insurance companies and private lending platforms. Its popularity has risen since
The Donald Trump administration’s approach to China broadly, and to cross-Strait relations in particular, remains a conundrum. The 2025 US National Security Strategy prioritized the defense of Taiwan in a way that surprised some observers of the Trump administration: “Deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority.” Two months later, Taiwan went entirely unmentioned in the US National Defense Strategy, as did military overmatch vis-a-vis China, giving renewed cause for concern. How to interpret these varying statements remains an open question. In both documents, the Indo-Pacific is listed as a second priority behind homeland defense and
In an op-ed published in Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said that Taiwan should not have to choose between aligning with Beijing or Washington, and advocated for cooperation with Beijing under the so-called “1992 consensus” as a form of “strategic ambiguity.” However, Cheng has either misunderstood the geopolitical reality and chosen appeasement, or is trying to fool an international audience with her doublespeak; nonetheless, it risks sending the wrong message to Taiwan’s democratic allies and partners. Cheng stressed that “Taiwan does not have to choose,” as while Beijing and Washington compete, Taiwan is strongest when
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) are expected to meet this month in Paris to prepare for a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). According to media reports, the two sides would discuss issues such as the potential purchase of Boeing aircraft by China, increasing imports of US soybeans and the latest impacts of Trump’s reciprocal tariffs. However, recent US military action against Iran has added uncertainty to the Trump-Xi summit. Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) called the joint US-Israeli airstrikes and the
RSS