Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) is now in Taiwan. Since the governments of Taiwan and China do not recognize each other, they rely on the semi-official ARATS and its Taiwanese counterpart, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), to handle communications between the two sides. Chen and SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) held talks in Beijing in June, but this is the first time the two have met on Taiwanese soil, and both governments have taken the event seriously.
Taiwan is a democracy and the normally camera-shy President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) felt compelled to grant a rare TV interview in an attempt to convince the public that the meeting between the SEF and ARATS chairmen would bring prosperity and peace to Taiwan.
China, in contrast, is an authoritarian regime, so the government does not need to address its people on the issue. Chen, therefore, can devote all his energies to “united front” work directed at Taiwanese. Aside from apologizing — under pressure — for the toxic milk affair, Chen followed the example of ARATS Vice Chairman Zhang Mingqing (張銘清) in trying to launch a tender offensive by sobbing in front of the camera.
They may be crocodile tears, but they will have the desired effect on some people. At the same time, Taiwanese businesspeople operating in China have voiced their support for the Chiang-Chen meeting.
The governments on both sides have done their utmost to generate a positive atmosphere for the talks, but they have encountered numerous obstacles.
For a start, Chen is not a welcome guest for many Taiwanese. After all, the country he represents has more than 1,300 missiles aimed at Taiwan, does all it can to restrict Taiwan’s participation in international organizations and activities and is endlessly plotting how to annex Taiwan, by force if necessary.
As if this were not enough, nasty diseases and toxic goods keep making their way from China to Taiwan.
In May, Ma, an advocate of “eventual unification,” moved into the Presidential Office, opening the way for Chen to visit Taiwan. Like an emissary of empire, Chen is receiving the full treatment given a head guest of state — except, perhaps, for the red carpet. Contrary to past practice for meetings between the SEF and ARATS, where the guest organization has always followed the arrangements of the host, this time everything has been fixed by China.
Ma’s government sought China’s prior approval for every detail, including which hotel Chen would stay at, where the talks would take place and even Chen’s itinerary during his five days in Taiwan.
And they agreed to keep the itinerary secret.
By bending to China’s will at every turn, Ma and his ministers downgraded Taiwan even before the talks began. Their foolishness is bound to put Taiwan at a disadvantage at the talks. On Oct. 25, just a week before the meeting, 600,000 people turned out for an opposition demonstration with the central demand that Taiwan’s sovereignty be safeguarded. As head of state, Ma could have ridden the tide of public opinion and used the crowd’s demands to push Taiwan’s interests in his dealings with China.
Instead, the government never misses a chance to lower Taiwan’s status relative to China. It has been leaning increasingly close to China, locking on to China’s market as the only solution to the country’s woes, and trying to conceal its own inability to handle the international financial crisis and domestic discontent.
The public, however, is not so easily fooled. In a survey published on the eve of the SEF-ARATS talks, 54.2 percent of respondents said that they thought Ma had acquiesced too much to China on the question of sovereignty. This shows that a majority of people in Taiwan can see Ma’s cross-strait policy for what it is — wishful thinking.
So, while Chen may be an honored and welcome guest for Ma and his Cabinet, he is persona non grata as far as most people in Taiwan are concerned. Faced with this dilemma, the government has only added fuel to the fire by mobilizing a force of 7,000 police officers and many officials from other government agencies, turning the area around the Grand Hotel, where Chen is staying, into a virtual martial zone.
It has pulled out all the stops to quickly investigate and prosecute Tainan City Councilor Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) of the Democratic Progressive Party for his involvement in the jostling of Zhang during his visit to Taiwan last month.
In so doing, the government meant to make show of strength and discourage protests that nonetheless are following Chen wherever he goes.
Chen himself was surely aware that his visit would be a baptism in democracy, Taiwan-style, but his itinerary was not changed. Clearly, China thought it had something to gain if the talks went ahead as planned.
First, holding talks between the SEF and ARATS in Taiwan creates the illusion within the international community that peace reigns over the Taiwan Strait. China stands to gain much and lose nothing from this, as the Ma government has been swimming straight into the net. Since Taiwan would never start a war, it is entirely up to China whether the two sides remain at peace or not.
Beijing has said openly that it does not exclude the use of force as a means to annex Taiwan, but at the same time it would like to create an illusion of cross-strait peace to deceive the world and put the people of Taiwan off their guards.
Second, this round of SEF-ARATS talks, which has been billed as putting the economy and people’s livelihoods first, will result in Taiwan’s economy becoming even more dependent on China than it is already. Taiwan’s money, talent and technology will be sucked dry. If Taiwan is turned politically and economically into a second Hong Kong, China will be able to annex it without even firing a shot. Most importantly, with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) collaborating behind the scenes, the SEF-ARATS meeting may well produce a “consensus” based on the “communique” signed three years ago by former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤). The gist of that communique was for the KMT and CCP to work together to prevent Taiwanese independence. Now, with Ma and the KMT heading the government, that plan is being put into practice and Taiwan is becoming further ensnared.
As the Ma administration uses the SEF-ARATS talks to deepen KMT-CCP collaboration and keep Taiwan under control — and in the process avoid oversight by the legislature — there are various things people concerned about the future of Taiwan can do. For one, they can join the “Safeguard Taiwan Week” activities organized by Taiwan Society (台灣社) and other civic groups.
Various protests are taking place to show Chen how pluralistic and lively Taiwan’s democracy is. Further, when campaigning for the presidential election, Ma made a lot of proposals regarding his China policy. He stressed that he sees himself as a Taiwanese, that the election was for the president of a sovereign state, that Taiwan’s future should be decided by its 23 million people, that there could be no negotiations with China unless it removes missiles aimed at Taiwan and so on. The public needs to keep an eye on this man and make sure that he keeps these promises.
Equally important is observing the conduct of any meeting between Ma, or his government ministers, and Chen, and to inspect any agreements that may ensue. We must insist that any such process is open and transparent. We should pay close attention to how the president is addressed, whether Ma allows his own status to be diminished, and whether there is any phony agreement about “one China, with each side having its own interpretation.”
Above all, Taiwan’s sovereignty and national dignity and the wellbeing of its people cannot be sacrificed for the sake of KMT-CCP collaboration at these talks.
TRANSLATED BY JULIAN CLEGG
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