Vehicles flying the People’s Republic of China national flag often appear outside the Presidential Office Building in Taipei and, after conducting a pro-China demonstration, drive off into the sunset. It is also not uncommon to see China’s five-star red flag openly waved in the streets by a column of demonstrators in downtown Taipei.
Officials often do nothing apart from occasionally dispatching police officers to “uphold public order,” as the morale among the ruling and opposition parties sinks.
When I was studying at university many years ago, my fellow classmates were executed by firing squad simply for being suspected of holding left-leaning sympathies. Despite the passage of time, it is still extremely painful to think about it.
Today, Taiwan’s malevolent neighbor treats Taiwan as if it were a tributary nation. Beijing rides roughshod over Taiwanese public opinion, endlessly engaging in saber-rattling and issuing threats of invasion.
According to international law, Taiwan has the right to defend itself by conducting a pre-emptive strike under the principle of casus belli, whereby an act of provocation can be used as justification for war.
Taiwan does not have that ability, but this does not mean that it should allow Beijing to treat it as it wishes, humiliating Taiwan and playing havoc with its democratic freedoms.
The actions of China’s fifth column are unprecedented in the directness of their provocation and humiliation. Officials attempt to conceal their weakness and ineptitude by speaking platitudes about Taiwanese democracy, guaranteeing freedom of speech. They reason that because the actions of pro-China agitators in Taiwan fall within the remit of free speech, the government should not get involved, while the public looks on, speechless.
Officials and politicians underestimate the intelligence of the public who clearly see that their elected representatives’ mealymouthed responses are nothing more than a face-saving exercise aimed at deceiving the public through cowardly and shameful subterfuge.
Would any other advanced democracy allow the fifth column of a hostile nation to run amok inside its borders? Would the US and Japanese governments allow North Korean provocateurs to carry out flag-waving parades outside the White House in Washington or the Imperial Palace in Tokyo? Of course not.
The government should employ the principle of “reciprocal favorable treatment” in all its dealings with Beijing. This means that anything that Taiwanese are able to do in China, Chinese should also be free to do in Taiwan. In the same vein, anything that Taiwanese are unable to do in China, Chinese should not be able to do in Taiwan.
This would mean, for example, that Chinese in Taiwan would be free to spread propaganda in support of Taiwan’s unification with China, so long as Taiwanese in China were free to spread propaganda in support of Taiwanese independence or self-determination.
By the same logic, if Taiwanese cannot plant the Republic of China national flag on Chinese soil, then Chinese in Taiwan should not be able to do the same with the People’s Republic of China flag. This would be a common-sense approach against which nobody could mount a convincing argument.
Furthermore, it is worth reminding ourselves that if the government were to simply to ban the activities of China’s fifth column, and were it to strictly follow the principle of “reciprocal favorable treatment,” it would hardly be a pretext for Beijing to declare war on Taiwan.
The public simply cannot understand the government’s feeble posture toward China, and its provocateurs and sympathizers operating in Taiwan.
Taiwanese need clarity from politicians and government officials. Do not forget that internal disunity breeds weakness and invites attack from abroad.
Peng Ming-min is a former presidential adviser.
Translated by Edward Jones
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