Tsai misses a key point
I watched with great delight the Youtube version of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presumptive presidential nominee Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) speech to the expatriates’ monthly Breakfast Club meeting on Saturday, which was hosted by Taiwan-based writer Jerome Keating.
Tsai presented in good English what she has been preaching all along, but something was badly missing. She spoke of communication with the international community, but limited her focus to Washington, which, after having worked for more than 10 years in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I think is a big mistake.
What is needed is a massive public diplomacy campaign on a world scale, not just directed at Washington. The ignorance in DPP circles about the importance of developing all of the tools needed to reach out to groups all over the world is astounding. People worldwide are turning to the multifaceted tools of public diplomacy to deal with many international issues. Just watch the current CNN campaign on human trafficking to get a clue.
This includes think tanks like Taiwan Brain Trust, Taiwan Thinktank and Taiwan Advocates. Tsai knows this. When she was vice premier, she called for an inter-ministerial top-level meeting to address public diplomacy, but two weeks later she was fired. There was never any follow-up on addressing public diplomacy in the pan-green camp, no matter how hard my team at the foreign ministry worked on it.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has a much clearer perspective on this issue, although his focus is limited to Chinese-leaning cultural diplomacy. I agree with him on a lot of what he wants to do in that field and in fact I helped the ministry put together some elements of a road map toward his “flexible diplomacy,” including the “Taiwan Corners” he wants to build around the world.
However, at this point in time, if the pan-greens want to save us from Ma’s obsessive tendency toward the “Sinicization” of Taiwan, DPP outreach must go far beyond Washington.
To preserve Taiwan’s democracy (and economy), much more effective public diplomacy work has to be done in Europe, Australia, Japan and many other parts of the world. In the age of cyberspace (and Jasmine Revolutions in the Arab world), it is clear that much can be done not only to ensure peace in the Taiwan Strait, but also to guarantee Taiwan’s independence and better relations with China.
It is my understanding from frequent discussions with Deng Xiaoping’s (鄧小平) first envoy to Taiwan in the early 1990s (a former professor of mine), that the People’s Republic of China — no matter what the People’s Liberation Army says — does not want war with Taiwan. It would be a catastrophic international event for Beijing. This is a complex issue being discussed by many people in many circles and I don’t have the space here to get into it.
However, I will say this: I know the ins and outs of foreign policymaking in Taiwan having spent more than a decade at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and some years in related organizations. The time to act on soft power is now, not tomorrow, and on all sides of the political spectrum. Engagement with China on democracy should be a priority for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). I spoke about this in 2009 at two seminars that I gave to the National Security Bureau at the Foreign Service Institute.
On the one hand, the KMT knows that it has little to fear from the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army. They can’t move for now. On the other hand, the DPP should know the same.
The way to be strong is to engage the world and China in a peaceful public diplomacy and soft power. It takes brains and hard work, but there are many examples to learn from.
I live near National Chengchi University in Taipei City’s Wenshan District (文山) and speak Chinese. I was also involved in the Taiwan Scholarship Program, in which I interacted with a number of Chinese students. What I can say from my encounters with students from China is that most of their chauvinistic views toward Taiwan change within a few months.
There are just as many divisions in Taiwanese society as in China. The point is to craft truthful public diplomacy messages, use cyberspace and allow non-governmental organizations to play a major role in developing cross-strait relations. This is the way forward on all of the issues Tsai discussed in her speech at the Breakfast Club.
BORIS VOYER
Taipei
Gratitude for Taiwan’s help
I am a Japanese woman living in Fukuoka Prefecture, Kyushu. I would like to express to Taiwan my feeling of gratitude for the great amount of donations that Taiwanese extended to Japanese who suffered from last month’s earthquake and tsunami. I was very impressed by your sympathy for the plight of Japanese.
I heard Taiwan donated more money than the US, even though the population of Taiwan is only a 10th the size of the US.
I wanted to send this letter sooner, but I could not find where to send it. Yesterday, I found your home page and the address of your office. Writing a letter in English is beyond my abilities. I hope you understand my feeling of gratitude.
I believe people in the eastern part of Japan will rise from the ashes with your aid. Thank you again for your concern.
MASAYO MIZUNO
Iizuka City, Japan
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