China reliance unneeded
In an interview last week with German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that maintaining close ties with the Chinese Communist Party was the only way forward for Taiwan. This was as clear an expression of his intention to secure eventual unification with China as anyone could want.
He said that the situation between Taiwan and China could not be equated with the experiences of West and East Germany and in how they achieved reunification because the cross-strait situation is unprecedented.
He said Taipei and Beijing have a special relationship, but stopped short of specifying the nature of that relationship as he saw it.
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) spoke of a “special state-to-state” relationship and, while former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) risked riling China at the time by talking of “two countries” and thereby maintaining Taiwan’s status as a nation in its own right, Ma has devoted his years in office to improving ties with China.
However, the hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese who took to the streets during the Sunflower movement attest that many people have reservations about his China policy.
Ma also talked of the possibility of signing an agreement with Beijing and setting up Taiwan affairs offices in China.
I am just curious, but was he going to go ahead with this by himself or was he thinking of putting it past the legislature first and giving the public a say in the matter?
Also, would it be safe to say that having such offices is just Beijing ticking one more box — just another notch along the way to downgrading Taiwan to a locality on the periphery with the “Motherland” as the center?
Hopefully, Ma is not coveting what he has not got. Hopefully he is committed to ensuring Taiwan is regarded as a nation, to the teaching of a Taiwan-centric curriculum in schools and to a national policy of localization and putting Taiwan first.
Taiwan is a small nation with a small population, and all Ma needs to do is make sure it prospers and that society is not divided.
Taiwan can thrive on the international stage. Why the need to rely so much on China?
Chen Chi-nung
Nantou County
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