The Panamanian government has invited both president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to attend the inauguration of the expanded Panama Canal in June.
Following precedent, Xi “will not be bothered” attending the ceremony, but if Beijing were more pragmatic, it would realize the event offers Xi a chance to show his statesmanship and to live up to his domestic image.
Xi should cast off an outdated idea of fighting for the right to be recognized as the legal government of China that has lived on ever since the days of Mao Zedong (毛澤東), former Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (周恩來) and former Chinese president Jiang Zemin (江澤民).
Instead, he should face up to the new situation. What is needed is a change of mindset to use this as an opportunity to show respect for Taiwanese and open up to diplomatic coexistence and the normalization of cross-strait exchanges.
The CCP defeated the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime in 1949 and took China’s seat at the UN.
Former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s (鄧小平) reforms and openness made some progress: one diplomatic ally makes little difference to China’s status as a super power.
The time of Mao and Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) was one long zero-sum game, and both sides had one goal: Mao wanted to annex Taiwan, while Chiang wanted to “reconquer the mainland.”
However, since Taiwan’s democratization, public opinion has been that Taiwan and China should coexist peacefully, and the games of the past no longer make sense.
Internationally, as the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty — which took effect on April 28, 1952 — did not specify any recipient after Japan renounced all claims to sovereignty over Taiwan, or mention that neither Taiwan nor China for a long time had any jurisdiction over each other, and as Taiwan has been engaging in substantive diplomacy based on its strength and new thinking, China cannot force Taiwan to accept annexation simply by taking over Taiwan’s diplomatic allies.
China’s diplomatic war has instead strengthened Taiwan’s position thanks to a backlash from Taiwan and other international powers.
China has praised former US president Richard Nixon as a visionary who dared go against a majority and visit China, despite a lack of diplomatic relations.
However, both Zhou and Deng said that they could not visit Washington until the Republic Of China embassy had been closed.
Although they succeeded in forcing the US to break off diplomatic relations with Taiwan, the practical relationship between the US and Taiwan became closer and stronger than ever.
Xi has increased oppression in China and promoted a personality cult in order to be to be remembered as a strong leader.
If he was a visionary, he would grasp this opportunity to show his magnanimity and use the invitation to Panama to share a stage with Tsai and open up a new era of diplomatic coexistence.
James Wang is a media commentator.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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