Once again, a Taiwanese artist in China has been forced to make a political confession. To eradicate her pro-Taiwanese independence label, actress Vivian Sung (宋芸樺) issued an apology, saying: “I am Chinese. Taiwan is my home, China is my country.”
Such incidents occur from time to time, and while they might make Chinese nationalists feel happy, most Taiwanese, whether they belong to the pan-blue or the pan-green camp, feel hurt.
Perhaps some feel that Beijing’s “one China” extortion of the government is a political affair that has little to do with themselves, but as similar cases of Taiwanese artists being humiliated continue, more Taiwanese are unhappy because they feel that their life and private sphere are being invaded as entertainment and consumer affairs become tainted with politics.
This is a feeling that people in China — a country that does not speak about democracy, freedom or human rights — will never experience.
Everyone knows that Taiwanese artists in China who are forced to make political confessions — indeed, a few people even make a living by reporting independence advocates to the authorities — are staging a special type of performance.
We can never know whether deep in their hearts, these forced confessions make them detest authoritarian China and become more appreciative of Taiwan’s civilized society.
At least one of these people will never forget the national health insurance — singer Huang An (黃安). Huang in 2016 accused teenage K-pop star Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜) of being “pro-independence” for waving a Republic of China flag on TV, sparking a Chinese boycott that forced her to apologize in public, but Huang later returned to Taiwan from China for medical treatment after a heart attack.
Freedom is as essential to the performing arts as it is to thinking, academic research, journalism and free speech. Once showbusiness becomes inundated with politics, artists will just be an entertainment battalion.
If they choose this path, they have to understand that their audiences will consist mainly of political activists, while people who really appreciate artistic performances will keep their distance. Taiwan is a free market, and artists who value their talent and professionalism will see clearly what is at stake.
A few weeks ago, Beijing manipulated an extraordinary meeting of the East Asian Olympic Committee to revoke Taichung’s right to host the first East Asian Youth Games because of a proposed referendum to rectify the name of Taiwan’s national team at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
One Taiwanese athlete reacted to the move by saying: “Given the option of rectifying the nation’s name at the risk of losing the right to compete, I would rather maintain the ‘status quo’ and compete in the international arena in the name of a Chinese team or under the name Chinese Taipei.”
“I certainly hope that one day I can compete internationally under the name of Taiwan, because, after all, I was born and raised in Taiwan — but this is something that our politicians should strive for, it is not something that athletes can change,” the athlete said.
However, if all Taiwanese athletes and artists thought like this, just grinning and bearing China’s bullying and passing the responsibility to politicians, that would play into Beijing’s hands. Every Taiwanese must share responsibility for the normalization of Taiwan as a nation. Now that we have allowed China to narrow its target, it will make it more difficult for Taiwan to become a normal country.
Artists reported as “independence advocates” and athletes competing as “Chinese Taipei” — this is the outcome of China’s bullying. The real cause is not Taiwan’s pursuit of normalcy, but China’s ambition to annex the nation.
The public should not play along with Beijing’s stigmatization of independence or use of “Chinese Taipei” to constrain Taiwan and put the blame on Taipei, which is working to maintain the independence “status quo.” This ridiculous logic taken to the extreme would mean the incorporation of Taiwan into China’s territory.
This is why, the more China bullies Taiwan, the more effort the nation should put into its pursuit of normalization and ridding itself of adversity, because China’s twisted logic is becoming prevalent and successive administrations appear to have viewed the pursuit of normalization as tantamount to changing the “status quo” and making trouble.
Perhaps President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has not moved beyond “maintaining the status quo” because former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) came under pressure from the US and China while he was in office.
However, maintaining the “status quo” does not mean no change. China, at least, has been constantly changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, which the US has explicitly criticized on many occasions.
“Maintaining the ‘status quo’” is aimed at invalidating Beijing’s intimidation and making it impossible for China to put pressure on Taiwan through the US.
Strategic relations between China and the US have shifted from a collaborative partnership to competition, as can be seen in the South China Sea and the trade war. As China takes concrete measures to change the cross-strait “status quo,” Taiwan must cooperate closely with the US and take advantage of US President Donald Trump’s Indo-Pacific strategy while fulfilling its responsibility to ensure regional security and steadily pushing the country to become more normalized.
As Taiwanese identity continues to rise in mainstream society, every politician — and the government in particular — should go to any length to promote normalization. This is the only way that talented Taiwanese, including artists and athletes, could display their talent on the international stage with dignity and showcase the nation’s soft power.
In addition, the government should ensure that industries continue to prosper and that the economy continues to grow, which would open up more opportunities for those with expertise and talent to find their niche at home, rather than facing the dilemma of making a living abroad or being so occupied with the few chances they have that they hardly have time to consider their dignity, let alone the nation’s.
Given that some Taiwanese have no choice but to go abroad to make a living and be humiliated, the person feeling the most distress must be the nation’s leader.
Then-president-elect Tsai in 2016 responded to the Chinese boycott of Chou by saying: “As long as I am president, I will make my best effort to ensure that no one needs to apologize for his or her national identity.”
In response to the Sung incident, Tsai said that “our favorite country is Taiwan.”
An effect of China’s rapid economic growth is that it has turned Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “Chinese Dream” into a “Taiwanese nightmare.”
It is beyond doubt that while Tsai is constructing a dream for the public and steering the nation away from China, a solid foundation established by industry and businesses is a must.
Translated by Chang Ho-ming
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