According to newspaper reports, when Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met a delegation of pro-unification supporters from Taiwan in Beijing on Sept. 26, he said that Chinese and Taiwanese people should have a “spiritual contract.” Xi’s comment came like a bolt from the blue and left many people feeling shocked or flustered.
China’s former leaders have made threats about bloodshed. On many occasions, China has prevented Taiwan from taking its place on the world stage, using any means at its disposal, including belittling, oppressing, denigrating and isolating Taiwan.
Beijing wants to stop Taiwanese institutions from using any wording to do with “country” or “nation.”
The word “national” in the titles of Taiwanese universities or museums is anathema as far as China is concerned, and the same goes for university institutes of national development.
In China’s opinion the word “nation” can never be applied to Taiwan as a whole, or to any subordinate entity.
China never addresses any Taiwanese civil servant, from the president all the way down to cleaners and clerks, by their official titles, but only as plain old “you.”
The same rule applies to all official letters and documents sent from China to Taiwan. If, by chance, someone on the Chinese side at a conference calls a Taiwanese minister “minister,” the Taiwanese authorities are ecstatic and the media report it at great length. You would think they had found the Holy Grail — how pathetic.
Let us remember how Chinese diplomat Sha Zukang (沙祖康) insulted Taiwanese people by saying: “Who gives a fig about you?”
If Chinese athletes see Taiwanese team members carrying the national flag, they rush over and snatch it away. All these insults are backed up by nearly 2,000 missiles aimed in Taiwan’s direction, forcing the nation to accept the peculiar title of “Chinese Taipei.” In terms of personal behavior, it is tantamount to hurling insults, punching and kicking.
Taiwan lives next door to a burly thug who is always snarling and breathing down its neck, but now all of a sudden the thug is turning on the charm with talk of a “spiritual contract.” Anyone, man or beast, would be scared to death, or even run away screaming for help.
Even more unacceptable is the fact that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has gone out of his way to lay bare his inner thoughts, telling a German reporter that aligning itself with China was the nation’s only practical means of survival, and that Taiwan should learn from the experiences of the former West Germany in handling its relations with East Germany to achieve eventual unification.
Although Ma denied it later on, past experience suggests that it would be wiser to believe the Germans than the Presidential Office.
Xi also said that Taiwanese people should understand Chinese people’s feelings and respect their choices and ambitions. We know that Chinese people have been brainwashed for a long time and all believe that Taiwan should belong to China.
However, opinion polls indicate that more than 60 percent of Chinese, or two people out of every three, would prefer not to be Chinese in their next life. Figures show that the great majority of the top echelon of China’s rich and powerful have obtained foreign nationality or are preparing to do so. Most Chinese people do not want to be Chinese, but they want to force Taiwanese people to be Chinese. Where is the sense in that?
Listening to high-ranking Chinese officials takes a lot of nerve and as for listening to top Taiwanese officials, that requires the patience of a saint.
Peng Ming-min is a former presidential adviser.
Translated by Julian Clegg
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
RSS