Taiwan's official response to China's "anti-secession" law focuses on the legal codification of military aggression, but political pundits said yesterday that a closer reading of the law suggested the possibility of economic or diplomatic warfare.
"[Beijing] could be referring to economic sanctions or diplomatic warfare. They avoid the situation of binding themselves [to certain options]," said Tamkang University Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies professor Lin Chong-pin (林中斌).
Lin previously served as the top deputy at both the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and the Ministry of National Defense.
Beijing's draft anti-secession law, which came up for legislative deliberation on Tuesday, provides terms that could trigger the implementation of "non-peaceful means or other necessary measures."
Referring to the possible interpretations of Beijing's deliberately ambiguous reference to "non-peaceful means or other necessary measures," former MAC vice chairman Alexander Huang (
But he ventured a few examples, despite noting that the bill's implementation was a decision that was privy only to Beijing's leaders.
Saying the "other necessary measures" mentioned in the bill were probably "at least coercive," Huang said that Beijing could be referring to "economic sanctions, the freezing of Taiwanese investors' assets on the Mainland ? it could try to use its currency or fiscal and monetary policy to exclude Taiwan from participation in Asian Pacific economic groupings."
"There are many possibilities and a lot of room for interpretation, but basically, these measures are not peaceful. They're unilateral and not necessary," said Lin Cheng-yi (林正義), director of the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi University and formerly a senior advisor to the National Security Council.
Lin further said that Beijing had effectively put a new spin on its approach to war in the anti-secession law, taking into serious consideration the socio-economic factors of employing military force. He highlighted Beijing's decision to entrust the State Council, in addition to the Central Military Commission, with the task of initiating "non-peaceful means."
"This indicates that economic and social concerns are being taken into consideration [in initiating non-peaceful means]," Lin said, and added, "The threat to Taiwan is not military ? but economic, cultural, social, religious ? it's coming at us in a sneaky manner."
Asked how the government should react to China's bill, political pundits agreed on the need for international intervention.
Lin Cheng-yi laid out terms that Taiwan should stand by, saying "at the very least, Taiwan needs to reserve the right to say `no' to China's unification maneuvers."
He also said that holding a referendum was a possible route as it had previously been attempted.
While not favoring a referendum, Huang nevertheless said Taiwan needed to communicate its stance via a "strong, meaningful, touching statement assuring the international community that we are a sovereign state and that we would never compromise our way of living ? we will continue to elect our president and legislature."
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