On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, the global media, including the media in Taiwan, were focused on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s televised address, looking for how he would reflect on Japan’s role in World War II, and the scope and depth of the apology he expressed.
However, from a Taiwanese perspective, there is another way to approach what Abe said in his speech. When he was talking about those he was to include in his reflections, he listed the peoples of Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines, and of neighboring countries such as Taiwan, South Korea and China.
Could it be that Abe was shining a light on Taiwan’s place within the international community? In fact, when he spoke to the US Congress in April, he mentioned how the US had helped with economic development in Asia, saying how after the 1980s, Taiwan, South Korea, ASEAN, and eventually China, all rose.
It is very unusual for the leader of a foreign country, especially in such a public forum, to speak of Taiwan in this way, within the context of international relations. What about Taiwanese? Even though the majority of the public think about the existence of Taiwan, many still tend to confuse it with the Republic of China (ROC).
Even people within the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) shy away from mentioning the ROC in dealings with China, fearful that by doing so they will anger Beijing. Like many Taiwanese, they would be quite happy to see the back of the ROC, albeit for different reasons.
In a recent article in the Taipei Times (“Nation’s 70-year search for closure, a just peace,” Aug. 19, page 8.), Lai I-chung (賴怡忠), an executive committee member of the Taiwan Thinktank, wrote about how Taiwan had been dragged into the civil war between the Chinese Communist Party and the KMT.
In addition to Lai’s arguments, it should be noted that the construct of the ROC on Taiwan, within the context of this civil war, was allowed to incubate within the wider context of the global Cold War, and within this Taiwan became tied by the ROC to the “one China” issue, thus preventing Taiwan from being able to establish itself as a purely autonomous sovereign nation as the ASEAN countries had done.
Taiwan has to divest itself of the ROC if it is to prevent itself from being annexed by China, and to count itself among the nations that, like the ASEAN countries, were reborn in the post-war period as new, independent countries.
If Taiwan is to go down this route, the safest and easiest way would be to apply for UN status as a new country under the name Taiwan.
Koh Se-kai is a former Taiwanese representative to Japan.
Translated by Paul Cooper
In an article published in Newsweek on Monday last week, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged China to retake territories it lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. “If it is really for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t China take back Russia?” Lai asked, referring to territories lost in 1858 and 1860. The territories once made up the two flanks of northern Manchuria. Once ceded to Russia, they became part of the Russian far east. Claims since then have been made that China and Russia settled the disputes in the 1990s through the 2000s and that “China
Because much of what former US president Donald Trump says is unhinged and histrionic, it is tempting to dismiss all of it as bunk. Yet the potential future president has a populist knack for sounding alarums that resonate with the zeitgeist — for example, with growing anxiety about World War III and nuclear Armageddon. “We’re a failing nation,” Trump ranted during his US presidential debate against US Vice President Kamala Harris in one particularly meandering answer (the one that also recycled urban myths about immigrants eating cats). “And what, what’s going on here, you’re going to end up in World War
Trips to the Kenting Peninsula in Pingtung County have dredged up a lot of public debate and furor, with many complaints about how expensive and unreasonable lodging is. Some people even call it a tourist “butchering ground.” Many local business owners stake claims to beach areas by setting up parasols and driving away people who do not rent them. The managing authority for the area — Kenting National Park — has long ignored the issue. Ultimately, this has affected the willingness of domestic travelers to go there, causing tourist numbers to plummet. In 2008, Taiwan opened the door to Chinese tourists and in
On Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) met with a delegation from the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University in California, to discuss strengthening US-Taiwan relations and enhancing peace and stability in the region. The delegation was led by James Ellis Jr, co-chair of the institution’s Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region project and former commander of the US Strategic Command. It also included former Australian minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne, influential US academics and other former policymakers. Think tank diplomacy is an important component of Taiwan’s efforts to maintain high-level dialogue with other nations with which it does
RSS