Last month, as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was visiting Guatemala and Belize, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) announced that it was establishing diplomatic ties with the Gambia, which was previously one of Taiwan’s few diplomatic allies.
Ma has said that since he came to office in 2008, the PRC has maintained a “diplomatic truce” with the Republic of China (ROC) as a gesture of goodwill.
Why did China have a change of heart in the last months of Ma’s Beijing-friendly administration?
Some analysts said that it was a “warning” to president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who is to be sworn in on May 20 after her landslide victory in the Jan. 16 elections.
They said that if she does not adhere to the so-called “1992 consensus” and follow the “one China” principle, then Beijing would start poaching Taiwan’s diplomatic allies.
Young Taiwanese feel strongly about the nation’s international recognition and think that it should be accepted as a full and equal member of the international community.
However, would they lose sleep over the severing of ties with the Gambia? Not really. Not because it is a small African nation with an undemocratic government that in 2013 decided to break ties with Taiwan, but because people need to focus on what is really important for the nation, as it faces an existential threat from across the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwanese need to focus on two things: First, building a better, more free and democratic nation that would set an example for other nations in the region. Taiwan needs to have better, more transparent politics; not “black box” operations favored by Ma. It needs an accountable Legislative Yuan, not shady back-room dealings that are characteristic of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Second, Taiwan needs to improve its relations with other nations that share its democratic values.
The nation’s diplomatic ties are the legacy of a bygone era when the then-KMT government claimed to be the ruler of all of China, hence the ROC name.
Officially, the nation retains this name, but it is a matter of time before it disappears to make way for “Taiwan.” The world refers to Taiwan as “Taiwan” and young people of the nation consider themselves “Taiwanese.” This is the reality on the ground and the sooner people adapt to it, the better.
Young Taiwanese reject the international isolation imposed on the nation due to the legacy of the KMT, which came from China with Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) after World War II. Taiwan deserves a place in the international community and the PRC’s claims are as unfounded, unjust and unfair as the KMT’s old claims to rule all of China.
It is time to leave the Chinese Civil War behind and work toward a new, positive and constructive relationship across the Taiwan Strait, in which the two nations recognize each other as friendly neighbors. That is the only way they could have sustainable peace and security in the region.
As far as the Gambia and other allies are concerned: Taiwanese would welcome it if they would move toward dual recognition of both Taiwan and China.
Lilly Lee Min-chen, a National Taiwan University graduate, was a participant in 2014’s Sunflower movement.
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
RSS