At a seminar at the Heritage Foundation in Washington last week, former American Institute in Taiwan Washington office managing director Barbara Schrage spoke about US-Taiwan relations since the nine-in-one elections in November last year.
She described the outcome of the elections as a political landslide for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and a major defeat for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). She said that this outcome showed the strength of Taiwan’s democracy and that this would increase the US’ commitment to the nation’s safety and security.
She continued by saying that as Taiwan is a democracy, it would not be appropriate for the US to interfere. However, she then said that the DPP needed to formulate a China policy, adding that “vague formulations” would not suffice.
It is peculiar that she accused the DPP of “vague formulations,” while the present so-called “1992 consensus” is an extremely opaque concept that has many different interpretations. If Schrage were evenhanded and fair-minded, she should also discuss the vagueness of the “1992 consensus.”
It is also rather incomprehensible that Schrage implores the DPP to “reduce the differences between the two sides.” Such a statement fails to take into account the uncompromising position taken by Beijing, which has set acceptance of the so-called “one China” principle as a precondition for any negotiations.
In recent statements at the National People’s Congress, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) negated even the “1992 consensus” by emphasizing only “one China” and rejecting any “different interpretations.”
However, Schrage really crossed the line when, in the question-and-answer session, she commented on the September 2011 visit of DPP Chairperson and then-presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), criticizing her for emphasizing the (democratic) “process” and not a “specific outcome.”
Schrage said that the US administration had wanted to hear her specific plans for managing cross-strait relations, adding: “Frankly speaking, she was disappointing in that area.”
In its own policies toward Taiwan, the US only talks about “process”: It emphasizes that in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act, the US insists on a “peaceful process,” and that there is a democratic process, in which decisions on the nation’s future should be made with the consent/assent of the people of Taiwan.
The US has never suggested any specific outcome, saying that it supports neither unification nor independence. It has also said that Taiwan’s current status is undetermined (in accordance with the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty), but emphasizes that its future status needs to be determined peacefully, without outside interference.
So it feels somewhat ironic that Schrage faults Tsai for doing precisely what the US is doing.
Of course, everyone wants to avoid tension with Beijing. As Taiwanese-Americans, we are confident that — when elected in January next year — a DPP government will play a constructive role in maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
However, the US must stand clearly on the side of democracy and freedom in Taiwan, and ensure that Taiwanese can make a free choice on their future. There is no room for ambiguity.
Indeed, comments from people like Schrage should focus on convincing Beijing to present a formula that can “narrow its differences with Taiwan.”
Taiwanese cherish their democracy, wish to maintain their freedom and want to be accepted as a full and equal member in the international family of nations.
Mark Kao is president of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs, a Taiwanese-American organization based in Washington.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
Ursula K. le Guin in The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas proposed a thought experiment of a utopian city whose existence depended on one child held captive in a dungeon. When taken to extremes, Le Guin suggests, utilitarian logic violates some of our deepest moral intuitions. Even the greatest social goods — peace, harmony and prosperity — are not worth the sacrifice of an innocent person. Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), since leaving office, has lived an odyssey that has brought him to lows like Le Guin’s dungeon. From late 2008 to 2015 he was imprisoned, much of this