Sat, Jan 06, 2001 page8

• Taiwan needs more acceptance, less advice

  • By Chen Mei-chin 陳美津
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  Every once in a while, an American think-tank figure pops up with a new idea on how to resolve the tension across the Taiwan Strait. In early 1998, it was the Kennedy School of Government's Joseph Nye who proposed his infamous "Taiwan deal." According to Nye, Taiwan was supposed to foreswear its independence in exchange for some kind of vague "higher international profile." A year later, Kenneth Lieberthal, who recently stepped down as head of East Asian affairs on Bill Clinton's National Security Council, launched his equally noxious and onerous "interim agreement" trial balloon.

  This time, David Shambaugh, a pro-China academic at the George Washington University, wrote in the January/February 2001 issue of Foreign Affairs that the concept of "confederation" offers the best hope for an ultimate solution, as "it would bring the island back into the sovereign fold of China while guaranteeing substantial autonomy to Taiwan."

  First, we must point out that Shambaugh's basic premise is all wrong, since Taiwan was never in the sovereign fold of the People's Republic of China (PRC) to begin with. Certainly, the KMT came from China, but mainlanders who arrived in Taiwan along with the KMT and their descendants constitute only 15 percent of Taiwan's population.

  The large majority of the people of Taiwan are native Taiwanese, and come from a background which identifies with Taiwan and rejects any sovereignty claim by China over Taiwan. When the KMT came to Taiwan under Chiang Kai-shek's (蔣介石) leadership, the island had just been freed from Japanese colonial rule and was looking forward to joining the multitude of newly independent nations in Asia and Africa.

  Instead, the people of Taiwan were subjected to 38 years of martial law and oppression by the Chinese KMT. The KMT, for many years, clung to the outdated notion that they -- as the Republic of China -- were the rightful government of all of China. While the Taipei government dropped these claims in the early 1990s, Taiwan's future is being held hostage by anachronistic counterclaims across the Taiwan Strait.

  Isn't it time for American scholars to stop perpetuating these outdated notions and help bring about an acceptance of Taiwan, by China and the rest of the international community, as a full and equal member of the family of nations? The most obvious -- and only fair -- resolution is to normalize relations with Taiwan and accord full diplomatic ties to a deserving nation of 23 million people.

  The US and other nations need to emphasize time and again that it is the right of the Taiwanese people to determine their own future, without interference, threats or intimidation from China. And if the people of Taiwan wish to be accepted as an independent nation named "Taiwan," that choice should be respected and even applauded by the international community.

  Chen Mei-chin is an editor of the Taiwan Communique
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