Vice President Lien Chan (
How refreshing it is, therefore, to see Lien break the mold by suggesting a bold and incisive policy move on the cross-strait front -- especially when it seems that independent presidential candidate James Soong (
What Lien has proposed is not so much a change in policy or strategy as a change in the presentation of Taiwan's position in the cross-strait debate. It is, in effect, the creation of a clever new public relations slogan: respect for human rights is higher than respect for sovereignty. In other words, respect for Taiwan's human rights should be higher than respect for China's claim to sovereignty over Taiwan.
This is obviously going to have an effect on politicians around the world, coming as it does in the wake of NATO's successful intervention in Kosovo. Can US President Bill Clinton, for one, ask the American public to condone an intervention on the grounds of human rights in Yugoslavia but not in the Taiwan Strait? Human rights are universal, after all, and the US has been a champion of the cause throughout the world. It is also a cause that is much easier for the international community to identify with, and more convenient for its leaders to exploit for their own public relations purposes. Better, certainly, than taking sides in a murky PRC-ROC sovereignty dispute that traces its origins to a civil war which took place half a century ago.
True enough, as Lien's critics have been quick to point out, this still leaves Taiwan at the mercy of fickle public opinion in the West. But it makes Taiwan's case much easier to sell abroad. And it does not supersede the argument that Taiwan's sovereignty rests with its people -- if anything, the new slogan is complementary: Taiwan's sovereignty is strengthened by its people's desire to uphold their human rights.
Soong, on the other hand, seems determined to cast himself as the great compromiser in cross-strait affairs and, by so doing, is creating the impression in international circles that Taiwan is prepared to enter into negotiations on its sovereignty -- however long-term they may be. This is something which no demo-cratic nation would ever willingly do. Yet by suggesting that Taiwan and China sign a "mutual nonaggression treaty" for a fixed period of, say, 30 years, he is proposing Taiwan begin treading the path that China and the US State Department have been increasingly desperate to lay down for it. By signing such an agreement -- dare we call it an "interim agreement" as suggested by Stanley Roth and Kenneth Lieberthal, Clinton's point-men on China policy -- Taiwan would be creating the impression that the clock has been set ticking on reunification. This would be disastrous from a strategic point of view for any cross-strait negotiator, and no one with Taiwan's interests at heart would have thought to suggest it.
It goes without saying that Lien's suggestion is not enough; he must be held to his ideas. The foreign affairs and cross-strait policy establishment must quickly be mobilized behind this new message. But Soong's statement warrants far more serious attention. He cannot be allowed to hoodwink the public into believing that appeasement is a policy worth pursuing where the nation's nemesis is concerned.
A series of strong earthquakes in Hualien County not only caused severe damage in Taiwan, but also revealed that China’s power has permeated everywhere. A Taiwanese woman posted on the Internet that she found clips of the earthquake — which were recorded by the security camera in her home — on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. It is spine-chilling that the problem might be because the security camera was manufactured in China. China has widely collected information, infringed upon public privacy and raised information security threats through various social media platforms, as well as telecommunication and security equipment. Several former TikTok employees revealed
At the same time as more than 30 military aircraft were detected near Taiwan — one of the highest daily incursions this year — with some flying as close as 37 nautical miles (69kms) from the northern city of Keelung, China announced a limited and selected relaxation of restrictions on Taiwanese agricultural exports and tourism, upon receiving a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) delegation led by KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁). This demonstrates the two-faced gimmick of China’s “united front” strategy. Despite the strongest earthquake to hit the nation in 25 years striking Hualien on April 3, which caused
In the 2022 book Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, academics Hal Brands and Michael Beckley warned, against conventional wisdom, that it was not a rising China that the US and its allies had to fear, but a declining China. This is because “peaking powers” — nations at the peak of their relative power and staring over the precipice of decline — are particularly dangerous, as they might believe they only have a narrow window of opportunity to grab what they can before decline sets in, they said. The tailwinds that propelled China’s spectacular economic rise over the past
President-elect William Lai (賴清德) is to accede to the presidency this month at a time when the international order is in its greatest flux in three decades. Lai must navigate the ship of state through the choppy waters of an assertive China that is refusing to play by the rules, challenging the territorial claims of multiple nations and increasing its pressure on Taiwan. It is widely held in democratic capitals that Taiwan is important to the maintenance and survival of the liberal international order. Taiwan is strategically located, hemming China’s People’s Liberation Army inside the first island chain, preventing it from