President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) often brags about how much cross-strait relations have improved since he took office in 2008, and how both Taiwan and China abide by the so-called “1992 consensus,” yet the way in which China has treated Taiwan and its envoy at the APEC meeting shows that Ma’s “achievements” are nothing but lies.
Attending the APEC meeting as Ma’s special envoy, former vice president Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) was not treated as he should have been at all, and despite the APEC meeting being an international event, Taiwan has been treated as just a part of China.
The “domestic” treatment of Taiwan started with the delivery of the invitation.
In the past, APEC invitations were usually delivered by a special envoy sent by the host nation’s leader to the president of Taiwan in person. However, on this occasion, the invitation was delivered by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Deputy Director Gong Qinggai (龔清概) — who was not sent as an envoy, but rather just happened to be in the nation on a visit — to Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) during a scheduled meeting between the two.
Rather than formally delivering an invitation to an international event on behalf of the host nation, the way in which Gong presented the invitation was more along the lines of “Oh, by the way, here’s an invitation to the APEC meeting, I happen to have it with me since I’m in Taiwan anyway.”
How was Ma addressed on the envelope? Of course the word “president” was not present; instead, the envelope read: “The Honorable Mr Ma Ying-jeou.”
Then came the meeting between Siew and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Sunday.
Despite Siew attending as Ma’s envoy, Xi only addressed him as “Mr Vincent Siew” and greeted Wang with a mere “nihao.” The meeting was reported by Chinese state media outlet Xinhua as a meeting between Xi and the “honorable chairman of the Cross-Strait Common Market Foundation Vincent Siew.”
The manner in which China treated Taiwan’s special envoy to APEC is certainly frustrating, yet, even more frustrating is that the government not only failed to protest — as any other nation would do under such circumstances — but was eager to defend China.
Asked by the media in a news conference to comment on the way in which he was treated during his meeting with Xi, Siew said he did not feel the treatment was degrading. He said he felt that he was well respected and that Xi was very friendly, adding that how the Chinese state media choose to describe him is “not something I can control.”
Grilled by lawmakers, Wang said that he did not see anything wrong with the way the invitation was delivered or the title on the envelope, adding that everything was agreed upon by the two sides prior to the delivery.
It is a positive development that both sides of the Taiwan Strait are adopting peaceful relations, but it is equally important how this is achieved.
True, a nation might avoid war by surrendering immediately when threatened, but while surrender might lead to superficial peace, it also leads to serious exploitation and repression.
Taiwan would prefer peaceful cross-strait relations, but the government must speak up and protest when the nation’s interests are being harmed, as no peace is worth compromising national interests and sovereignty, especially if such a compromise only brings further harm.
Taiwan’s higher education system is facing an existential crisis. As the demographic drop-off continues to empty classrooms, universities across the island are locked in a desperate battle for survival, international student recruitment and crucial Ministry of Education funding. To win this battle, institutions have turned to what seems like an objective measure of quality: global university rankings. Unfortunately, this chase is a costly illusion, and taxpayers are footing the bill. In the past few years, the goalposts have shifted from pure research output to “sustainability” and “societal impact,” largely driven by commercial metrics such as the UK-based Times Higher Education (THE) Impact
History might remember 2026, not 2022, as the year artificial intelligence (AI) truly changed everything. ChatGPT’s launch was a product moment. What is happening now is an anthropological moment: AI is no longer merely answering questions. It is now taking initiative and learning from others to get things done, behaving less like software and more like a colleague. The economic consequence is the rise of the one-person company — a structure anticipated in the 2024 book The Choices Amid Great Changes, which I coauthored. The real target of AI is not labor. It is hierarchy. When AI sharply reduces the cost
The inter-Korean relationship, long defined by national division, offers the clearest mirror within East Asia for cross-strait relations. Yet even there, reunification language is breaking down. The South Korean government disclosed on Wednesday last week that North Korea’s constitutional revision in March had deleted references to reunification and added a territorial clause defining its border with South Korea. South Korea is also seriously debating whether national reunification with North Korea is still necessary. On April 27, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung marked the eighth anniversary of the Panmunjom Declaration, the 2018 inter-Korean agreement in which the two Koreas pledged to
I wrote this before US President Donald Trump embarked on his uneventful state visit to China on Thursday. So, I shall confine my observations to the joint US-Philippine military exercise of April 20 through May 8, known collectively as “Balikatan 2026.” This year’s Balikatan was notable for its “firsts.” First, it was conducted primarily with Taiwan in mind, not the Philippines or even the South China Sea. It also showed that in the Pacific, America’s alliance network is still robust. Allies are enthusiastic about America’s renewed leadership in the region. Nine decades ago, in 1936, America had neither military strength
RSS