While it is no secret that China has long employed the carrot-and-stick approach in its nefarious scheme to bring Taiwan into its fold, it has of late turned up the intensity and frequency of its efforts to stifle Taiwan’s global presence.
On the one hand, Beijing has stepped up its suppression of Taiwan internationally through arbitrary acts, such as demanding that international airlines and hotel groups designate Taiwan as part of China on their official Web sites, revoking Taichung’s right to host the East Asian Youth Games and pressuring Taiwan-based bakery chain 85°C to show its support for Beijing after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) visited a Los Angeles branch on Aug. 12.
On the other hand, it has gone on a “charm” offensive to woo Taiwanese, such as offering a package of 31 so-called “incentives” for Taiwanese enterprises and professionals and, effective Saturday next week, a residency card that Beijing authorities say would allow cardholders from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau to enjoy the same treatment and public services as Chinese citizens.
Taiwanese holders of the China-issued residency cards do not need to have a household registration in China, nor will they have to give up their household registration in Taiwan, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Deputy Director Long Mingbiao (龍明彪) said, adding that the cards will simply make life more convenient for Taiwanese who have a stable job in China and have lived there for at least half a year.
However, this seemingly innocent offer fits right into Beijing’s schemes to promote and facilitate unification of livelihoods between peoples on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. With Taiwanese holding China-issued residency cards, Beijing hopes to create the impression globally that Taiwan is part of China.
While it might come down to a personal choice for Taiwanese on whether to apply for a residency card and risking consequences such as surrendering their personal data to Beijing, the government cannot afford to stand idly by. In view of Beijing’s intensified and increasingly sophisticated “united front” tactics, it should map out contingency plans to defend the nation against further Chinese attempts to infiltrate Taiwanese society.
As President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Saturday said, China’s issuance of residency permits to Taiwanese is “motivated by a certain political agenda.”
There are several approaches the government could take to counter these attempts to jeopardize Taiwan’s sovereign status and international standing.
For one, it is time to take a long, hard look at the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) and consider whether it should be abolished as a step toward the nation’s normalization.
Several Taiwanese academics have also suggested that the government invite people who have been oppressed by China — such as the Dalai Lama and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo’s (劉曉波) widow, Liu Xia (劉霞) — to Taiwan. It will not only be a proactive action on Taiwan’s part, but also serve to highlight the nation’s free and democratic values.
In view of China’s well-orchestrated campaign against Taiwan, all talk but no action projects the image of a spineless administration that is at wit’s end when it comes to dealing with China.
On March 22, 2023, at the close of their meeting in Moscow, media microphones were allowed to record Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dictator Xi Jinping (習近平) telling Russia’s dictator Vladimir Putin, “Right now there are changes — the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years — and we are the ones driving these changes together.” Widely read as Xi’s oath to create a China-Russia-dominated world order, it can be considered a high point for the China-Russia-Iran-North Korea (CRINK) informal alliance, which also included the dictatorships of Venezuela and Cuba. China enables and assists Russia’s war against Ukraine and North Korea’s
After thousands of Taiwanese fans poured into the Tokyo Dome to cheer for Taiwan’s national team in the World Baseball Classic’s (WBC) Pool C games, an image of food and drink waste left at the stadium said to have been left by Taiwanese fans began spreading on social media. The image sparked wide debate, only later to be revealed as an artificially generated image. The image caption claimed that “Taiwanese left trash everywhere after watching the game in Tokyo Dome,” and said that one of the “three bad habits” of Taiwanese is littering. However, a reporter from a Japanese media outlet
Taiwanese pragmatism has long been praised when it comes to addressing Chinese attempts to erase Taiwan from the international stage. “Taipei” and the even more inaccurate and degrading “Chinese Taipei,” imposed titles required to participate in international events, are loathed by Taiwanese. That is why there was huge applause in Taiwan when Japanese public broadcaster NHK referred to the Taiwanese Olympic team as “Taiwan,” instead of “Chinese Taipei” during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. What is standard protocol for most nations — calling a national team by the name their country is commonly known by — is impossible for
The Iran war has exposed a fundamental vulnerability in the global energy system. The escalating confrontation between Iran, Israel and the US has begun to shake international energy markets, largely because Iran is disrupting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. This narrow waterway carries roughly one-third of the world’s seaborne oil, making it one of the most strategically sensitive energy corridors in the world. Even the possibility of disruption has triggered sharp volatility in global oil prices. The duration and scope of the conflict remain uncertain, with senior US officials offering contradictory signals about how long military operations might continue.
RSS