President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) claimed that the total proportion of Taiwanese exports going to China rose from 24 percent in 2000 to 40 percent in 2008 and, thanks to his administration’s efforts to diversify exports, dropped to 39 percent last year.
While habitually belittling former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Ma presents too flimsy an argument to counter the strong allegation that he has been trying to barter away the nation’s financial, economic — and thus — political autonomy.
It is almost a public consensus in Taiwan that Ma has been granting massive benefits to cross-strait conglomerates.
BENEFIT TRANSPORTATION
Since the outbreak of the serial food safety scandals involving Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團), people have come the realization that several of the government’s franchise and reshuffling projects might be nothing more than large-scale benefit transportation businesses.
Among the most suspicious cases are: the launch of the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system; Ting Hsin’s Taiwan depositary receipts; the sale of China Network Systems; the merger of Taiwan Star Telecom; the acquisition of the Taipei 101 building; the potential bankruptcy and transfer of the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp; the illegal alteration of land classification of former Shin Yen Textile Co’s land; and a cross-strait monopoly of farm produce scheme for the Golden Field Holding (Cayman Islands) Corp cartel.
Except for the ETC, all these cases are related to Ting Hsin — the most successful Taiwanese business in China — without exception, Ma’s Cabinet has offered munificent administrative assistance and financial support in all of them.
RISK EXPOSURE
On top of this disastrous profit transportation, it was reported last week that national banks have hit a record-high level of risk exposure to China — 41 times higher than when Ma took office.
Strictly speaking, in view of the scale of its actions, corruption is no longer the right word to describe the misconduct carried out by Ma’s government.
It obviously goes far beyond the abilities of one official and reaches out to foreign soil. It sounds more like the liberation of a whole nation — a silent liberation achieved by taking over Taiwan’s finances and infrastructure.
Who are the ones pulling the strings? Who are the collaborators? Who is handling the massive flow of money outside the nation? What international financial institutions are involved?
Strangely, Ma’s possible role in this conspiracy corresponds with the US’ core policy of resolving the Taiwan question peacefully, which the US Department of State has reiterated for decades.
However, “raising the blue flag to sabotage the blue team” is a technique rooted in sophisticated Chinese political tradition.
It seems that it is not only being applied to domestic politics, but diplomacy as well.
An item in the US’ Taiwan Relations Act states: “It is the policy of the United States ... to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic systems, of the people on Taiwan.”
The secret power might not appear in the form of outright force or coercion, but it is reaching for Taiwan’s jugular.
It is quietly jeopardizing the nation’s economic system and security, and if it succeeds, will surely tip the regional balance in the “Indo-Pacific” area.
HoonTing is a political commentator.
In the US’ National Security Strategy (NSS) report released last month, US President Donald Trump offered his interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. The “Trump Corollary,” presented on page 15, is a distinctly aggressive rebranding of the more than 200-year-old foreign policy position. Beyond reasserting the sovereignty of the western hemisphere against foreign intervention, the document centers on energy and strategic assets, and attempts to redraw the map of the geopolitical landscape more broadly. It is clear that Trump no longer sees the western hemisphere as a peaceful backyard, but rather as the frontier of a new Cold War. In particular,
As the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) races toward its 2027 modernization goals, most analysts fixate on ship counts, missile ranges and artificial intelligence. Those metrics matter — but they obscure a deeper vulnerability. The true future of the PLA, and by extension Taiwan’s security, might hinge less on hardware than on whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can preserve ideological loyalty inside its own armed forces. Iran’s 1979 revolution demonstrated how even a technologically advanced military can collapse when the social environment surrounding it shifts. That lesson has renewed relevance as fresh unrest shakes Iran today — and it should
The last foreign delegation Nicolas Maduro met before he went to bed Friday night (January 2) was led by China’s top Latin America diplomat. “I had a pleasant meeting with Qiu Xiaoqi (邱小琪), Special Envoy of President Xi Jinping (習近平),” Venezuela’s soon-to-be ex-president tweeted on Telegram, “and we reaffirmed our commitment to the strategic relationship that is progressing and strengthening in various areas for building a multipolar world of development and peace.” Judging by how minutely the Central Intelligence Agency was monitoring Maduro’s every move on Friday, President Trump himself was certainly aware of Maduro’s felicitations to his Chinese guest. Just
On today’s page, Masahiro Matsumura, a professor of international politics and national security at St Andrew’s University in Osaka, questions the viability and advisability of the government’s proposed “T-Dome” missile defense system. Matsumura writes that Taiwan’s military budget would be better allocated elsewhere, and cautions against the temptation to allow politics to trump strategic sense. What he does not do is question whether Taiwan needs to increase its defense capabilities. “Given the accelerating pace of Beijing’s military buildup and political coercion ... [Taiwan] cannot afford inaction,” he writes. A rational, robust debate over the specifics, not the scale or the necessity,
RSS