The only way for the relations between Taiwan and China to become normalized and friendlier is for the two nations to develop state-to-state relations.
Cross-strait relations have been trapped in talk about the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) version of China and Taiwan, and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) version of the situation.
The problem with the cross-strait service trade agreement is that it is not an agreement between two countries.
Any agreement that is not between two countries will inevitably be full of traps and dangers.
Why are Taiwan and China not two separate countries?
This is because the Republic of China (ROC) government in Taiwan long ago lost the conditions required to be recognized as a sovereign, independent country, although the government still makes the absurd claim to the Taiwanese that the “ROC” is a country.
Without a “real” country as a base, capitalists have to deal with the various trade and tariff agreements of the globalized era by yielding to traps laid by the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
This is adhering to the same party-state ideology as the KMT, which wishes to adhere to the China of the CCP.
This is clear from the friendly way the KMT behaves toward the CCP, which wants to take away the country it controls, and the hostile way it treats the Democratic Progressive Party, which wants to replace the KMT in Taiwan.
Does Taiwan still have any need for a “party state” that views an enemy country hell-bent on annexing it as an “ally,” while it views domestic opposition parties as enemies?
If the KMT claims that the international political situation is forcing it to behave like this because it is the only way it can save the economy, then all that can be said is that this is a direct result of the stubborn way in which the KMT has ruled Taiwan.
The KMT views Taiwan as a funeral gift and is so unwilling to become a part of Taiwan that it would rather die at China’s hands than to exist in Taiwan.
This is the KMT party state that in 1971, without considering the ramifications of its actions for the future of Taiwan, withdrew the ROC from the UN.
When it did this, the ROC, which lost the conditions required to call itself a country, was no longer qualified to enjoy the support and trust of Taiwanese.
The party state that long ruled by imposing martial law, and supported an anti-communist policy that used the “rule of law” as an excuse for persecuting countless numbers of political dissidents, also said that it did all this for the good of the country.
Now the KMT leans toward China and works hand-in-hand with it, and once again uses the “rule of law” as an excuse to suppress dissidents and ignoring a forming democracy, and once again claims that this is for the good of the country.
Such a confused party state does not deserve to have control over Taiwan’s state apparatus.
Those living in Taiwan need to see that Taiwan’s international troubles spring from the KMT’s party-state mindset, as well as the way the KMT has bought into China’s ideology.
This is why Taiwan has lost its status in the international community as a “real” country.
Without any status as a real country, the KMT has fallen into traps set by the PRC in order to relieve the competitive pressures of global trade.
All the reforms that Taiwanese have been fighting for have never been intended for the forfeiture of the nation while large corporations and capitalists profit.
Lee Min-yung is a poet.
Translated by Drew Cameron
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