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
Taiwanese pragmatism has long been praised when it comes to addressing Chinese attempts to erase Taiwan from the international stage. “Taipei” and the even more inaccurate and degrading “Chinese Taipei,” imposed titles required to participate in international events, are loathed by Taiwanese. That is why there was huge applause in Taiwan when Japanese public broadcaster NHK referred to the Taiwanese Olympic team as “Taiwan,” instead of “Chinese Taipei” during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. What is standard protocol for most nations — calling a national team by the name their country is commonly known by — is impossible for
India is not China, and many of its residents fear it never will be. It is hard to imagine a future in which the subcontinent’s manufacturing dominates the world, its foreign investment shapes nations’ destinies, and the challenge of its economic system forces the West to reshape its own policies and principles. However, that is, apparently, what the US administration fears. Speaking in New Delhi last week, US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau warned that “we will not make the same mistakes with India that we did with China 20 years ago.” Although he claimed the recently agreed framework
The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) on Wednesday last week announced it is launching investigations into 16 US trading partners, including Taiwan, under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to determine whether they have engaged in unfair trade practices, such as overproduction. A day later, the agency announced a separate Section 301 investigation into 60 economies based on the implementation of measures to prohibit the importation of goods produced with forced labor. Several of Taiwan’s main trading rivals — including China, Japan, South Korea and the EU — also made the US’ investigation list. The announcements come
Taiwan is not invited to the table. It never has been, but this year, with the Philippines holding the ASEAN chair, the question that matters is no longer who gets formally named, it is who becomes structurally indispensable. The “one China” formula continues to do its job. It sets the outer boundary of official diplomatic speech, and no one in the region has a serious interest in openly challenging it. However, beneath the surface, something is thickening. Trade corridors, digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI) cooperation, supply chains, cross-border investment: The connective tissue between Taiwan and ASEAN is quietly and methodically growing
RSS