China's Jiang Zemin (
The words "liberate" and "liberation" -- the usual English translations for jiefang -- carry connotations of freedom, justice and equality. But in the political lexicon of the Chinese Communist Party, they bear a rather different meaning. Jiang, after all, is the leader of a regime that "liberated" the population of China into two decades of slaughter and starvation following 1949, meanwhile erecting the apparatus for political oppression on a scale never before known to mankind, and then "liberated" the neighboring country of Tibet into a state of permanent armed occupation. In the Orwellian doublespeak of China's autocracy, "liberation" is what happens to you when the People's Liberation Army comes calling.
Curiously, Jiang's statement was not labeled provocative or destabilizing. During the following days, brows were not furrowed in the foreign ministries of the freedom-loving West. Eyebrows were not raised among editorialists and opinion-makers. Thousands of column inches decrying the irresponsible and incendiary character of Jiang's remarks did not flood the international commentary pages of the world's press. In a tacit acknowledgement of China's right to menace Taiwan to its heart's content, there was none of the brouhaha that followed Lee Teng-hui's (
Of course unlike Lee, who had the temerity to speak without first clearing his text with the US State Department, Jiang at least had the courtesy to inform the Americans first -- in fact he was welcoming the new US ambassador to Beijing at the time. And while Lee's move clearly represented another awkward step in Taiwan's ten-year backtracking from the claim to sovereignty over China, Jiang's threat implied no change of policy -- the PRC has never been shy about its desire to savage Taiwan by force if the disobedient little province won't be brought to heel by other means. The impact was also softened by the fact that Jiang's interpreter that day cannily -- or by pre-arrangement -- opted to translate jiefang by the more neutral "reunify," knowing full well that her Shakespeare-quoting boss was capable of correcting her if necessary.
But the threat still stands, both as a nod, on Jiang's part, to the more hawkish elements in the Chinese army and government, and as an implicit acknowledgement, on the part of the PRC, that it has well and truly lost the argument on the question of Taiwan.
After all, there is perhaps a case to be made for Taiwan's reunification with China, in the near future and on Beijing's terms, just as there is a case to be made for Taiwan to be allowed to enjoy in name the independence it already enjoys in fact. But the frustrating thing for China is that it doesn't seem to make any headway with its preferred line of reasoning. Granted, diplomatic bullying has earned the PRC grudging acceptance around the world for its "one China" dogma, and the Chinese domestic audience -- kept primed by endless goading about Western imperialism, Japanese atrocities, unequal treaties, the stain of national humiliation etcetera -- is always receptive to the government's tirades against the abominable splittist Lee Teng-hui. But in Taiwan, with the exception of a lunatic fringe susceptible to ego-massaging by China's united-front tacticians, the hearts and minds of the people remain stubbornly resistant to the siren call of reunification. All that remains for China is to scare them with the prospect of impending Armageddon.
It's not a very sophisticated line of reasoning, something akin to the schoolyard "Gimme the lollipop or I'll give you a black eye"approach. Or in the context of an abusive relationship: "Shuddup bitch, or I'll smash your teeth in." The rhetoric lacks delicacy, but the message gets across loud and clear.
No wonder an ROC foreign minister once compared the PRC to the 360kg gorilla in your front room who thinks he's your brother. To stretch the analogy, this is a gorilla with a dangerous problem -- glimmerings of rational intelligence, enough to delude itself that its actions are guided by logical considerations, but not enough to accept the implication that it may, just occasionally, be in the wrong. In the case of the PRC, what we see now are the stirrings of bewilderment and rage as the truth dawns: this is one dispute it's not going to win by power of intellectual persuasion.
Consider for a moment the bizarre arguments advanced by the PRC in defense of its right to rule Taiwan. Firstly there's the claim that nothing stands in the way of reunification bar the splittist ambitions of certain unidentified foreign elements. That means the old bogymen of Western and Japanese imperialism, presumably in the guise of the cohorts of English teachers and Tienmu expats who might read this paper, wickedly scheming to uncouple Taiwan from the mothership and drag her off, against the will of her inhabitants, to become the 51st state of the USA.
Then there's a set of claims -- so tenuous as to be meaningless -- covering Taiwan's geographical, historical and ethnic ties to the motherland: the island sits on the edge of the continental shelf and was once linked to the mainland by a land bridge; archaeological evidence places Taiwan's record of human settlement squarely within the confines of 5000 years of Chinese history; the two sides of the Strait share a common ethnic ancestry.
This last point conveniently overlooks the presence of aboriginal peoples long predating the influx of "settlers" (colonizers) from the mainland, and neglects the fact that even China itself is a patchwork of ethnic diversity, while all mankind shares a common ancestry. As to the geographical and historical claims, they're no better than those that could be asserted in the case of a number of other nations around the world. Accept the principle that Taiwan is a province of the PRC just because it is 240km away, or because its people use the same language, and we have to be ready to sanction a lot more shuffling of colors on the atlas.
For example, the three Baltic states could see their hard-won independence reversed as sovereignty over them reverts to Moscow, while Belgrade could reclaim control of the breakaway republics of Yugoslavia. Geographical proximity and ethnic links might require that Sri Lanka become part of India, that the Netherlands merge with Germany, and that Ireland be ruled from London -- or vice versa. Indeed, sovereignty over North America could be also be restored to Britain, given the shared cultural, linguistic and historical heritage, though the British Isles would then have to be given back to Denmark (the Vikings) or Germany (the Saxons), before being handed over along with the whole of Western Europe back to Italy (the Roman empire). Likewise, South America could revert to control from Lisbon and Madrid, though Portugal might then get incorporated into Spain (strong geographical claim). Controversially, Israel would have to be handed back to the Palestinians (historical claim), then given back to the Jews again (remote historical claim), and finally back to whoever was there before Moses and his people first settled the area.
Meanwhile, China would be allowed to expand its borders to encompass the territories of Korea and Vietnam (historical claims, geographical proximity), but could then itself be delivered into the hands of the Mongolians, who did at one time incorporate China into their empire just as China has, over the centuries, absorbed neighboring entities into its own sprawling domain.
Time moves on, regimes come and go, and countries are determined for the most part by the people who inhabit them. Nothing remains static forever -- as even a rudimentary grasp of the principle of yin and yang teaches us. The fact remains: the people of Taiwan do not want to be ruled from Beijing, and no amount of hammering on about dynasties and landmasses is going to change that. It might change in the future if Taiwan is ever unlucky enough to find itself once more an economic straggler in the world, straining under the yoke of authoritarian rule, while China enjoys a flourishing of prosperity and freedom. But until that day, a sizeable majority in Taiwan will continue to favor the status quo -- in other words "independence" in all but UN recognition.
Little wonder that China, so obsessed with the concept of "territorial integrity," opposes international intervention in Kosovo and East Timor while celebrating the bloodfest in Chechnya -- witness the sorry spectacle not so long ago of Jiang Zemin heartily congratulating Boris Yeltsin on Russia's brutal campaign there.
There is a further dubious justification that Beijing resorts to in its efforts to convince itself and others that Taiwan is an inalienable part of the PRC, one designed to work on the heart rather than the brain. This is the patriotic notion -- embarrassing in its cheesiness but apparently with a certain appeal to those who hanker after the glories of the past -- of China as the "great motherland," to whose "sacred" bosom the errant waifs (Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan) must inevitably return. The PRC, of course, is an avowedly atheist state where superstition, such as faith in Falun Gong, is punishable by imprisonment and worse.
Yet the continual harping on the "sacredness" of the national cause betrays a crisis of identity, if not outright hypocrisy. Marx must be spinning in his grave. Mao would probably crack his crystal sarcophagus if he knew. Meanwhile, the word "motherland" -- which has such a cozy resonance in English -- itself masks the deeply Confucianist, illiberal nature of the Chinese state. In Chinese the word is zuguo (
So the PRC has lost the argument, and has nothing left now but threats. Jiang Zemin came right out and admitted it. Yet still we see mainland academics and diplomats popping up on CNN and elsewhere, claiming to present coherent arguments for the legitimacy of the PRC's claim to Taiwan. News organizations and international forums really should stop taking these people seriously. They belabor Taiwan's leaders for not being willing to negotiate in good faith, but at the same time they press the barrel of a gun against the head of every man woman and child in Taiwan -- people who pose no danger to China whatsoever.
It's about time that these "intellectuals" were confronted at every turn with the mind-boggling dishonesty of their reasoning, a reasoning that boils down to the simple, vicious threat: "Accept PRC sovereignty, on our terms and our timetable ... or be liberated!"
Christopher MacDonald is a freelance writer based in Taipei.
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