When asked the other day whether Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), chairman of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS, 海協會), would meet with “the Taiwan region’s top leaders” during his visit next week, Yang Yi (楊毅), spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO, 國台辦), replied that ARATS would go along with the arrangements made by Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF, 海基會). Yang’s remark showed that Beijing was not very concerned about whether Chen would meet President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Beijing has never pushed for such a meeting. In June, when SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) came back to Taiwan from talks in Beijing, it was Ma who said he would meet Chen, adding: “I will call him Mr. Chen and he can call me Mr. Ma. I think that is the best way.”
Since June, however, the Chinese have only confirmed that Chen would visit Taiwan for ARATS-SEF talks before the end of the year, but gave no indication as to whether or not Ma and Chen would meet, saying only that ARATS and the SEF would arrange the details.
The reasons for Beijing’s lack of enthusiasm are not hard to fathom. Having overseas guests meet “top leaders” is an old Chinese communist tactic. Arranging for guests to be received by people of higher rank can boost their self-esteem and make them feel well cared for. Treating guests with such propriety can help keep them in line and, while making them feel a little inferior and instilling a feeling of gratitude.
It worked with former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, who wrote in his memoirs how, when meeting former Chinese president Mao Zedong (毛澤東), he was deeply impressed by the leader despite his constant bluffing. When receiving Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and Chiang earlier this year, Chinaese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) followed precisely this formula. Wu and Chiang laid aside Taiwan’s national dignity while announcing that they were received with the highest honors.
Might the Chinese not worry that Ma could play the same game with Chen? Such worries would explain why, on his visit to Taiwan in 1995, then ARATS vice chairman and TAO deputy director Tang Shubei (唐樹備) declined to meet with Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council Minister Huang Kun-huei(黃昆輝).
Secondly, Ma has been trying hard to set Chen’s mind at ease by not insisting on receiving him in his capacity as president, and even giving more than was asked for by calling Taiwan a “region.” However, Ma has little space for making friendly gestures following the scandal over toxic Chinese milk powder and the Democratic Progressive Party’s demonstration on Oct. 25. In fact, a meeting with Chen would give Ma a good chance to show some strength for a change. From Beijing’s point of view, Ma has already given them everything they wanted, so why hand him a chance to act tough?
What Yang really meant by “going along with arrangements made by the SEF” was: “We don’t care whether Ma and Chen meet. If you really want a meeting, what can you give us in return?”
For his part, Ma is still feebly and naively trying to placate the other side by insisting that the term “Taiwan region” has been in use for decades and was written into the 1992 Statute Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例).
None of the topics slated for discussion during Chen’s visit to Taiwan is political. Since this round of consultations is a matter of routine, it should be treated as such. There is no need for Ma to meet Chen. If Ma needs a stage to put on an act, there will be plenty of other opportunities.
Liang Wen-chieh is deputy director of New Society for Taiwan.
TRANSLATED BY JULIAN CLEGG
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS