The government wanted to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). However, since China continues to insist that Taiwan is a non-sovereign economic body, Taiwan must follow what Beijing calls the “Hong Kong/Macau model” and ask the Chinese Ministry of Finance to apply for membership on its behalf.
Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) said that Taiwan cannot accept such a model and thus Taiwan’s application to the AIIB hit a roadblock.
Admission into the AIIB was never an appetizing prospect and so Taiwanese do not need to regret giving it up. The only reason the government proceeded with the farcical application — and in doing so brought humiliation on both itself and the nation — is because President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is led by the nose by his ideological beliefs, and because certain sections of the government and the media kicked up a fuss over Taiwan’s prospective membership.
Now that Taiwan has received a public slap in the face from Beijing, the sorry farce is drawing to a close. All that remains is to see whether those involved in the project will snap out of their collective reverie.
The Ma administration, in attempting to bring Taiwan into the AIIB, has cast the nation’s dignity to one side and genuflected to Beijing in the most cringeworthy manner.
First, in March last year, in a letter of intent to become a founding member nation of the bank sent to China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), Chang omitted his official title of “minister of finance, Republic of China.”
If the government shows no self-respect, how can it expect China to show it any respect? Moreover, since China constantly finds ways to humiliate and bully Taiwan, it should have been obvious that Beijing would reject Taiwan’s application.
Despite this, the Ma administration continued to deceive itself as well as others. When Ma met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in November last year, Xi said that he welcomed Taiwan’s admission into the AIIB in an appropriate guise.
This filled Ma with a renewed sense of hope and Chang said he felt optimistic that Taiwan’s application under the name “Chinese Taipei” would be successful.
Such wishful thinking would have made Ah Q — the delusional main character from Lu Xun’s (魯迅) novella The true story of Ah Q — blush with embarrassment.
Very few Taiwanese would be prepared to accept their government using the title to bluff their way into the AIIB, let alone China. Xi was simply paying lip service to Ma’s deluded scheme ahead of the Jan. 16 presidential and legislative elections.
A lie would never be anything than that: No one in the nation except Ma and his officials thought Xi’s slippery words would ever come true.
When reflecting on the whole sorry incident, what really makes Taiwanese blood boil is the way in which the Ma administration’s warm overtures were met with an icy-cold snub from Beijing.
The AIIB is primarily a tool for Beijing to extend its strategic, expansionist “One Belt, One Road” project — and to establish a bank that sits outside the existing system of international development finance and take on established US and Japanese-led institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
Now that China’s ambitious designs have been revealed, the US, Japan, Canada and other nation have chosen not to join the AIIB. US Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew recently issued a direct appeal to the AIIB to respect the IMF, the World Bank and other established global standards to consolidate existing global financial structures.
China’s motives for setting up the AIIB are purely political. Beijing never misses an opportunity to humiliate Taiwan, but this time the Ma administration has brought humiliation upon itself.
Article 3, Clause 1 of the AIIB Articles of Agreement states that membership in the bank shall be open to members of the Asian Development Bank. Then, Clause 3 states that: “In the case of an applicant which is not sovereign or not responsible for the conduct of its international relations, application for membership in the bank shall be presented or agreed by the member of the bank responsible for its international relations.”
The Ma administration initially applied to become a member of the AIIB in its capacity as a member of the Asian Development Bank and in accordance with the first clause of Article 3, but did so through China’s Taiwan Affairs Office. In doing so, the government dug a hole for itself by voluntarily diminishing the nation’s sovereignty.
Now that the truth has come out, Chang said that he “cannot accept” the membership model proposed by Beijing.
Chang’s words are dripping with insincerity, since it must have been clear to him from the very beginning how China would deal with Taiwan’s membership application.
Since the AIIB was set up with this purpose — and Beijing’s overt plotting against Taiwan is clear for all to see — it begs the question: Supposing Taiwan had become a member, what commercial opportunities or benefits would Taiwanese have derived from membership to the bank?
A joint report issued by the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Economic Affairs said that Taiwan’s membership would “boost the nation’s international presence, regional economic integration, transnational commercial opportunities and cross-strait cooperation projects,” in addition to other cliches. Based on the report, the government issued a statement in its usual officialese, that “the advantages of membership outweigh the disadvantages.”
Considering that Taiwan — a founding member of the Asian Development Bank — contributes funds to that bank on a much larger scale than it would have contributed to the AIIB, but in return Taiwanese companies receive annual business opportunities amounting to only US$20 million, it is clear that it is pure fantasy to promote potential business opportunities through AIIB membership.
The public has, through the ballot box, issued an unequivocal verdict on eight years of the Ma administration that has moved Taiwan closer to China. Before the election, the Ma administration danced to Beijing’s tune and the so-called “concessions” obtained by Taiwan were in reality benefits for political enablers and high-ranking officials — the sort of underhand behavior that Taiwanese absolutely loathe.
The AIIB is working hard to realize Xi’s so-called “China Dream” — even though it might actually end up being a “Taiwanese nightmare” for him. Can it be that the Ma administration, blinded by wishful thinking, was unable to see Beijing’s evil intentions?
The Ma administration’s dream of joining the AIIB lies in tatters and the gratuitous humiliation of Taiwan at the hands of Chinese leaders has served the purpose of allowing the public to once again see the truth: Beijing would resort to every conceivable means to continue to suppress Taiwan.
However, each time China suppresses Taiwan, it causes more bad blood and increases the feeling of antipathy felt by Taiwanese toward China.
When a recent opinion poll asked how people would feel if China resorts to measures such as reducing the number of Chinese tourists to Taiwan, suppressing Taiwan’s international space or cutting cross-strait economic exchanges, 68.3 percent of respondents said they would not agree with such actions and would feel antipathy toward China.
Ma and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) genuflection to China has resulted in Taiwanese voters soundly rejecting his government and his party. The Ma-KMT party-state and their best friends in Beijing cannot afford to keep repeating the same mistakes by continuing to oppose the will of Taiwanese.
Translated by Edward Jones
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