In a recent interview with the US magazine Foreign Policy, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) proposed a new concept of “two countries, one system” to resolve the bilateral relationship between Taiwan and China. The novelty of the idea surprised the blue, green and red camps.
The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) politicians reacted in their typical manner, by first threatening the public saying that it must be endorsed by China, while failing to give any legitimate reasons to back that point of view. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was also afraid to give away its position too easily. Ko is a man of his word: Not only does he go beyond the pan-blue and pan-green camps, he also reaches beyond the red camp.
First, the New Party in Taiwan is considered part of the red camp, because it accepts the “one country, two systems” formula and promotes immediate unification to realize the goal of making the People’s Republic of China (PRC) the sole representative of “one China.”
The KMT often upholds “Chinese Taipei” without mentioning its status as a country, while the green camp advocates a sovereign and independent state. Despite the DPP’s recognition of the Republic of China (ROC) as the “status quo,” deep-green supporters advocate building a Republic of Taiwan. Ko, however, advocates Taiwan as an independent and sovereign state, putting aside the name of the country for the time being.
Second, the pan-blue, pan-green and red camps all focus on the name of the country, but Ko focuses on the system itself. His “one system” of course refers to a democratic one, because he is an elected mayor under a democratic system. Even if China resists a democratic system, it is difficult to oppose democracy publicly, and Beijing may simply reiterate that this is not in conformity with China’s actual conditions. However, the Chinese people should have the final say when it comes to the question of whether democracy conforms to China’s actual conditions or not. Does China dare hold a referendum on the issue?
To sum up, Ko’s proposal gives consideration to both national sovereignty and to the political system, and this is perhaps the best way for handling the bilateral relationship between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan’s national security can only be protected under his “two countries, one system.” As predicted by Ko, China was not too pleased with his remarks, and Beijing’s mouthpiece the Global Times even threatened a boycott of the Taipei-Shanghai City Forum (雙城論壇) and the 2017 Universiade. That would really be two very welcome things.
The twin-city forum is an unequal forum, because Taipei is the capital of Taiwan and Shanghai is just a Chinese city. This humiliating decision was made by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) during his term as mayor of Taipei. A Chinese boycott really would be the best solution, since that would mean not having to listen to China’s attempts to promote its united-front strategy.
As for the Universiade, Ko wanted to cancel the event anyway to save a huge budget that could be spent on numerous issues directly related to the welfare of Taipei’s residents. Still, it would have been difficult to change the decision to host the sports event since it was a pledge to the international community.
If China were to boycott the event, Ko should release a statement to announce that his city might not host the event, since it would be meaningless to do so following the boycott of the world’s most populated country, thus placing pressure on Beijing. As for any Taipei officials and businesspeople hoping to profit from the event, perhaps they should file a claim for compensation with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Ko is not the president, and his ideas cannot be carried out throughout the whole nation, but they have indeed spread outside of Taipei, and this has opened up new opportunities for the DPP in its contacts with China. It should not embrace China as uncritically as the KMT, or take on the role of intermediary for China’s interactions with Taiwan. Instead, it should express the wishes of the Taiwanese to the Chinese. Ko’s statements should also allow the international community to gain a better understanding of public opinion in Taiwan. In particular, Western countries should formulate more realistic China policies and stop listening to China and ignoring the human rights of Taiwanese.
As for Ko’s controversial remarks on colonialism during the interview with Foreign Policy, although he had good intentions, he failed to make his point clearly enough. In particular, he failed to distinguish between the former colonies of Western democracies and those of Chinese dictators.
Paul Lin is a political commentator.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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