Former representative to Japan Koh Se-kai (許世楷) and former minister of foreign affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) yesterday denounced President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) “one China” policy as the reason Taiwanese businesses are targeted in the anti-China violence in Vietnam.
The “one China” policy, which has Vietnamese mistakenly consider Taiwan as part of China, is what puts Taiwanese businesses operating in Vietnam at risk during anti-China riots, Chen said.
Chen said that, since the 90,000 Vietnamese migrant spouses in Taiwan clearly understand that Taiwan and China are different countries, the Ministry of the Interior should encourage them to exert their influence and to help convey the message that Taiwan is different from China back to Vietnam and that Taiwanese should not punished for problems caused by China
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Koh said that since the Ma administration has always been under the sway of China, Ma is unable to quickly react to the Vietnam violence, with the government’s countermeasures all similar to stalling strategies.
He added that he is afraid that the nation is to be lumped together with China when future negotiations about compensation for Taiwanese businesses takes place.
“It would be difficult to have compensation straightened out if we were tied with China,” Koh said.
Chen and Koh made the remarks on the sidelines of a conference in Taipei on Taiwan’s future hosted by the Taiwan New Century Foundation in commemoration of late Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮).
Former foreign ministry official Maysing Yang (楊黃美幸) also said the “one China” policy generated various problems in the international community.
If the government maintained a firm position on differentiating between Taiwan and China, Taiwanese businesses overseas would not have suffered from anti-China violence, she said.
Chen said that the Ma administration has never seriously refuted the claim that China has been repeatedly making about Taiwan’s being a part of China.
This connivance on the government’s part is responsible for the Vietnamese mistaking Taiwan as part of China, so the government is to blame for losses Taiwanese businesses are suffering in Vietnam, he added.
Koh criticized Ma’s “one China” policy as the cause of the international misunderstanding, adding that he always made clear to the Japanese government that Taiwan is an independent country when he was a representative to Japan.
Meanwhile, in related news, a pro-localization group yesterday urged the government to rectify Taiwan’s name after the attacks in the recent Vietnamese demonstrations.
“Foreign nationals easily confused the Republic of China (ROC) with ‘People’s Republic of China,’” Taiwan Association of University Professors president Lu Chung-chin (呂忠津) told a press conference in Taipei.
Citing Taiwanese accounts that the Vietnamese rioters made no distinction between Chinese and Taiwanese because most of the rioters said “Taiwan is part of China,” Lu said the incident shows the nation must quickly rectify its name to “let the international community know that Taiwan and China are two different countries.”
He added that Vietnamese textbooks teach that Taiwan is part of China, “however, regretfully, we did not see the Ministry of Foreign Affairs protest and ask Hanoi to correct the error.”
He said the ministry should hold an international press conference immediately to make clear that Taiwan and China are two different countries and therefore help assure Taiwanese businesspeople’s safety and interests in Vietnam.
Additional reporting by Rich Chang
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard