On Monday afternoon last week, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sent 12 patrol vessels into the waters off the Diaoyutai islands (釣魚台) for what it called a “routine patrol.” Two members of an association aimed at asserting the Republic of China’s (ROC) sovereignty over the Diaoyutais followed in a fishing boat, protected by the coast guard vessels.
Early the next morning, the 12 coast guard boats had a more than four-hour standoff with seven ships of the Japan Coast Guard, after which they escorted the two activists back to Taiwan. If protecting Taiwan’s claims over the Diaoyutais by treating our overall national interests as some kind of child’s game is the only — albeit useless — way the “passionate youth” of yore can think of after reaching the ranks of the “passionate middle-aged,” then it is safe to say that we are now facing the “domino effect” the pan-blue camp hangers-on have been worried about.
Regardless of what was behind this incident, the fact that another dispute over the Diaoyutais has occurred only two months before the November special municipality elections will be the last straw that breaks middle voters’ trust in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). This most recent dispute over the Diaoyutais is completely different to the sinking of a Taiwanese ship in 2008 by a Japanese coast guard vessel in terms of its causes, nature and timing. It is definitely not an issue “that will flare up every now and then” and therefore can be ignored as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had declared.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, which is leaning heavier and heavier toward the deep-blue end of the spectrum, has made a series of consecutive misjudgments and reckless moves on crucial issues lately, thereby managing to involve Taiwan in the territorial dispute between the US, Japan and China. In doing so, the government has further fueled perceptions among the international community that Taipei is currying favor with Beijing. A few days ago, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office even “praised” the move, saying it was in line with the interests of both sides of the Taiwan Strait. This is a major policy mistake by Ma caused by his Sinocentric world view and his lack of international perspective.
The recent problem over the Diaoyutais started on the morning of Sept. 7 when a Chinese fishing boat sailed into the area and was intercepted by a Japanese patrol vessel. As it was being intercepted, the two boats collided and the Chinese vessel and its crewmembers were taken into custody by Japanese authorities. While this was an accident, protests by both China and Japan and the ongoing US-Japan joint military exercises in the background caused the situation to quickly deteriorate. Beijing announced it would postpone talks with Tokyo originally scheduled for the middle of this month on jointly developing oil fields in the East China Sea. There have also been reports of attacks by Chinese nationalists against schools for Japanese nationals in China.
While all this was going on, a group of activists from China, Hong Kong and Macau came to Taiwan to join forces with Taiwanese activist groups and travel together to the Diaoyutais to “protest.” The question of how the Ma administration strikes a balance between protecting Taiwanese sovereignty, consolidating alliances with other nations and securing tangible interests will be a real test of the administration’s governing skills.
First, Taiwan, Japan and China have all declared that the uninhabited Diaoyutais belong to them. However, according to the Treaty of San Francisco, the Diaoyutais were not viewed as territory that Japan should relinquish after World War II and Tokyo agreed to the US administering the Ryukyu Islands and other islands under a UN mandate. In 1971, the US and Japan signed the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, which returned the administration of the Diaoyutais to Japan. The first moves to protect the ROC’s claims over the Diaoyutais were made the following year. When the US Senate passed the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, it made a distinction between administrative power and sovereignty, claiming that the transfer of administrative power did not involve sovereignty. This is why the dispute over the Diaoyutais continues to this day.
On the one hand, the Diaoyutais fall under the scope of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the US and Japan. On the other hand, the Diaoyutais contain large oil reserves and fishery resources. With Taiwan’s best interests at heart, the best solution would of course be to hold talks with Japan in order to find ways of putting aside differences and cooperating to develop the region. At the same time, Taiwanese fishing rights should be guaranteed.
The worst solution would be to cooperate with China and engage in childish provocation against Japan by sending ships to nominally protect claims over the Diaoyutais. The Ma administration has chosen the worst way possible, hurting the interests of Taiwan as well as other nations by making mistakes regardless of whether it decides to do nothing, something substantial, or only a little. The problem lies in the fact that the government’s notion of a “Greater China” has completely overshadowed its understanding of Taiwanese sovereignty.
There should be no dispute over Taiwan’s sovereignty, but we have seen the government put the issue aside to sign 14 agreements with China. As the current administration’s time in office is coming to an end, negotiations on fishing rights between Taiwan and Japan have failed to produce any results. The government is getting its priorities mixed up and wasting taxpayers’ money to send out fleets to claim ROC sovereignty over the Diaoyutais.
It does not, however, explain why the CGA did nothing when a Chinese fishing boat entered the waters off the Diaoyutais. Nor does it explain why no ship was sent to the rescue when a Taiwanese fishing boat was sunk two years ago, yet a dozen ships were sent to protect two activists, embarrassing the nation. We must ask whether the government is looking after its citizens and keeping its eyes on the bigger issues at hand, or if its is playing political games and venting its personal anti-Japanese sentiment. The answer should be easy to see.
When the CGA-escorted boat with the two activists left the Diaoyutai area, activist groups from Hong Kong and Macau at the Yeliou (野柳) fishing port raised banners calling on people to crush Japanese militarism and to swear to protect the nation’s territories in a scene reminiscent of the Boxer Rebellion late in the Qing Dynasty. However, what does “nation” on their banners refer to? The Ma regime has a confused view of its national identity. One can only speculate if the KMT domino will remain standing when the ROC ceases to exist.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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