Despite the insistence of Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang (陸慷) that the restoration of diplomatic ties between China and the Gambia — a former ally of Taiwan that unilaterally broke off ties in 2003 — “targets no one,” it is obvious that the move was designed to give Taiwan a poke in the eye.
Beijing is signaling that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is no longer useful to it; but also trying to ramp up the pressure on president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
While DPP lawmakers said that the incident demonstrated the failure of Ma’s policy of “flexible diplomacy” — the basis of his so-called “diplomatic truce” with China — Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have interpreted it as China’s way of attempting to intimidate Tsai.
If Tsai neglects to mention the so-called “1992 consensus” in her May 20 inauguration speech, then Beijing will woo Taiwan’s diplomatic allies away en masse, KMT lawmakers said.
During a hearing of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, National Security Bureau Director-General Yang Kuo-chiang (楊國強) hypothesized three specific sanctions China could impose on Taiwan if it is dissatisfied with Tsai’s inauguration speech: shutting down existing negotiation channels, prohibiting Chinese tourists from visiting Taiwan and taking diplomatic action.
“The warning to the new government is thick with meaning,” the bureau said in a report submitted to the legislature yesterday. “It is intended to pressure president-elect Tsai Ing-wen to respond in her May 20 inaugural speech in a way that falls in line with China’s expectations.”
So, should Tsai take heed and avoid reiterating her rejection of the “1992 consensus” in the speech?
The answer is simple: If Taiwanese were worried about the prospect of China shutting down cross-strait negotiation channels, prohibiting Chinese tourists from visiting Taiwan, snatching away Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, or any other of the stale, reactionary threats they have become accustomed to, they would not have voted for Tsai in the first place.
The nearly 6.9 million voters who gave Tsai her mandate in January knew well that Tsai and the DPP never recognized the existence of the “1992 consensus,” which Ma and the KMT claim refers to a tacit understanding reached between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party that both Taiwan and China acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Tsai’s cross-strait stance is that she would maintain the “status quo,” which she defines as “the ‘status quo’ of Taiwan’s liberal democracy and cross-strait peace.”
If Taiwanese cared about kowtowing to Beijing, they could have simply voted for the KMT’s Eric Chu (朱立倫).
That they did not means they disapprove of Ma’s Sinocentric policies and his submissive lapdog attitude toward Beijing.
With the public behind her, Tsai can stand strong against Beijing’s intimidation.
All Tsai’s inaugural speech needs to be concerned with is the upholding of Taiwan’s national interests and dignity, and her only priority should be pleasing her masters — the Taiwanese public, not Beijing.
The image was oddly quiet. No speeches, no flags, no dramatic announcements — just a Chinese cargo ship cutting through arctic ice and arriving in Britain in October. The Istanbul Bridge completed a journey that once existed only in theory, shaving weeks off traditional shipping routes. On paper, it was a story about efficiency. In strategic terms, it was about timing. Much like politics, arriving early matters. Especially when the route, the rules and the traffic are still undefined. For years, global politics has trained us to watch the loud moments: warships in the Taiwan Strait, sanctions announced at news conferences, leaders trading
Eighty-seven percent of Taiwan’s energy supply this year came from burning fossil fuels, with more than 47 percent of that from gas-fired power generation. The figures attracted international attention since they were in October published in a Reuters report, which highlighted the fragility and structural challenges of Taiwan’s energy sector, accumulated through long-standing policy choices. The nation’s overreliance on natural gas is proving unstable and inadequate. The rising use of natural gas does not project an image of a Taiwan committed to a green energy transition; rather, it seems that Taiwan is attempting to patch up structural gaps in lieu of
The saga of Sarah Dzafce, the disgraced former Miss Finland, is far more significant than a mere beauty pageant controversy. It serves as a potent and painful contemporary lesson in global cultural ethics and the absolute necessity of racial respect. Her public career was instantly pulverized not by a lapse in judgement, but by a deliberate act of racial hostility, the flames of which swiftly encircled the globe. The offensive action was simple, yet profoundly provocative: a 15-second video in which Dzafce performed the infamous “slanted eyes” gesture — a crude, historically loaded caricature of East Asian features used in Western
The Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office on Monday announced that they would not countersign or promulgate the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) passed by the Legislative Yuan — a first in the nation’s history and the ultimate measure the central government could take to counter what it called an unconstitutional legislation. Since taking office last year, the legislature — dominated by the opposition alliance of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party — has passed or proposed a slew of legislation that has stirred controversy and debate, such as extending
RSS