Following the inauguration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government, former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairman Richard Bush, who is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, wrote a commentary titled Tsai’s inauguration in Taiwan: It could have been worse.
The title of course should have read: Beijing’s response to Tsai’s Inauguration: It could have been worse. The incomplete title set the reader off on the wrong foot. Under normal circumstances, one could blame the editors of a publication for not catching the essence of the article. However, in this case, the commentary is on the Brookings Institution’s own Web site.
Bush examines Tsai’s inauguration speech on Friday last week and gives an analysis of Beijing’s response. There is of course nothing wrong with a thorough analysis, but in approaching it this way, Bush makes several fundamental errors.
First, by zooming in on the cross-strait issue only, Bush totally negates the fact that Tsai was elected by Taiwanese and therefore is first and foremost responsible to them. She focused most of her speech — and rightly so — on the domestic economic, social and political challenges, emphasizing economic reform, judicial reform and legislative reform to “make Taiwan a better country.”
Tsai said that Taiwan is a young democracy and that it needs to move forward to strengthen the democracy for the wellbeing of all its people. She also said that democracy had been kidnapped by ideology — a clear reference to former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) — and that it needs to be redirected to solve society’s economic and social problems.
Second, in her speech, Tsai also focused on regional peace and stability and cross-strait relations, emphasizing the broader picture. By narrowly zooming in on "She said, They said", Bush is losing sight of the broader perspective. In other words, he makes it appear as if Tsai moving another inch on the wording might bring less tension or even a resolution.
That is simply fiction: By its actions across the board — in the South China Sea, East China Sea, Tibet and East Turkestan to name a few — Beijing has shown a distinct disdain for finesse and is riding roughshod over the interests of others. It is a mistake to think China would act differently regarding Taiwan.
Third, in his analysis, Bush is uncritical and unquestioning of Beijing’s ulterior motives: Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and other Chinese leaders have made it clear that their ultimate goal is incorporation of Taiwan into the unwelcome embrace of China. The so-called “1992 consensus” and “one China” principle are indeed a slippery slope toward political incorporation and subordination to Beijing.
However, Taiwan and its transition to democracy is a major showcase for democracy in East Asia, and letting Beijing have its way would be a major betrayal of the values and principles for which the US stands.
So, rather than painstakingly weighing words spoken by one side or the other, it would be better if the best and brightest minds in Washington would express clear support for the momentous advance Taiwan has made in its quest for democracy. That is something to celebrate.
The US and Western Europe need to work harder to bring Taiwan out from the cold of international political isolation. Taiwan is not the repressive Republic of China of the 1970s claiming to represent all of China, but has morphed into a vibrant and proud democracy, and should be accepted by the international community as a full and equal member.
Gerrit van der Wees is former editor of Taiwan Communique, a publication based in Washington.
This article has been corrected since it was first published to indicate that it was President Tsai Ing-wen who "focused on regional peace and stability and cross-strait relations, emphasizing the broader picture," not Richard Bush.
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US