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Academics agree that Taiwan should `go its own way' to avoid damage

Pro-independence scholars yesterday said that Taiwan should, in the words of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) "go its own way" immediately to avoid inevitable, imminent and serious damage to its national interests and security. The way to do this is by seeking membership in as many international organizations as possible, they said.

"Strategists in the US believe that Taiwan's unification with China is not far away, which means that Taiwan should definitely go its own way immediately," said Chen Kuo-hsiung (陳國雄), a researcher from the Taiwan National Security Institute, in a remark which seemed to sum up the views of the other scholars.

Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), a research fellow in the Division of Strategic and International Studies of the Taiwan Research Institute, highlighted the pervasive sense of urgency among the scholars, who were attending a seminar held by the pro-independence intellectual grouping the Northern Taiwan Society (北社).

"Taiwan is like a lamb caged by a wolf. Its attempts to escape the cage are always labeled as provocations by China. But the cage will get smaller and smaller, as Taiwan's space in the international community shrinks, if Taiwan doesn't try to go its own way," he said.

Chen Lung-chu (陳隆志), a national policy advisor to the president, emphasized that Taiwan should be more confident in itself, given its successful experience in developing democracy, and should promote the reality of its independent sovereignty as it continues in its bid to join the UN.

Liao agreed that international organizations held the key, though he thought UN membership might be too ambitious.

"Beijing always needs to spend a lot of energy to prevent Taiwan joining international organizations. Joining the United Nations might be too ambitious for us, but we could join all kinds of international governmental organizations one by one, such as the International Telecommunications Union and Intelsat," Liao said.

Chen Lung-shu added that when the international community recognizes Taiwan's sovereignty, Taiwan will be much safer from China's threats.

Hsu Fu-tong (徐福棟), a former trade policy advisor to former US president Bill Clinton said the US was the key to Taiwan gaining international recognition.

"The shortest path for Taiwan to take to resolve its differences with China is through the US," he said.

He suggested that the government should spend more money on lobbying in Washington, as well as all of the member countries of the UN and the WHO.

Reacting to President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) remark at his inaugural speech as the DPP's chairman last Sunday, in which he urged China to respond to his goodwill or "we would not rule out the possibility of going our own way," the Northern Taiwan Society had invited academics and experts in military affairs, diplomacy, economics and history to discuss why and how Taiwan should go its own way.

All of the scholars said that the government and President Chen himself had not been confident enough to lead Taiwan on its own way, which had resulted in Beijing's domineering attitude toward the country.

"Chen Shui-bian has not walked Taiwan's own way in the past two years, that's why Beijing has treated us so terribly," said Chen Kuo-hsiung.

"We now should make clear to the international community about what road we want to go on, especially to the US," he said.

However, Lee Shiao-feng (李筱峰), a professor of history at Shih-Hsin University, warned, "Before we go our own way, the most urgent problem for us is to resolve the problems caused by confusion over our national identity. Promoting the concept of identifying Taiwan as a sovereign state is a crucial mission before we go any further."
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