Upside to “Chinese Taipei”
President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) adoption of “Chinese Taipei” in lieu of “Republic of China” to identify Taiwan’s participation in international bodies — a move apparently acquiescent to Beijing — carries risks, downsides and upsides.
The uproar that greeted the Taiwanese representative’s perceived timid performance at the World Health Assembly (WHA), especially Minister of Health and Welfare Lin Tzou-yien’s (林奏延) failure to include any mention of “Taiwan” in his formal remarks, could lead to some difficulty in promoting Tsai’s domestic agenda, which until then was on a roll.
Foremost, the WHA incident might appear to have given the one-foot-in-the-grave Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) a shot in the arm. A swarm of KMT stalwarts came out to cry foul and demand an apology to former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, whose WHA showing, they claimed, was superior to Tsai’s on account of the fact that his representatives mentioned “Taiwan” multiple times, often with enthusiasm and “love for Taiwan.”
“That is absurd,” countered the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), citing the distinction that Ma’s representatives went there under the “Taiwan, a part of China” premise, while Tsai has never agreed to the so-called “1992 consensus.”
These lines of argument by both sides only gave the appearance of hair splitting. “Chinese Taipei” is equivalent to “Taipei, a territory of China” and China is officially and universally known as the People’s Republic of China (ROC). Taiwanese should take no comfort in this.
However, Ma’s unrelenting efforts to nudge Taiwan into China were real and underlined all his failures, both domestically and internationally. His government’s actions in the WHA naturally deserved extra scrutiny. The KMT did not have any vestige of a basis for exoneration there.
On the other hand, Tsai’s approach apparently was designed to placate both Beijing and Washington with an eye to opening up Taiwan’s international space, boosting Taiwan’s exports and consequently lifting Taiwan’s economy out of the doldrums. It might also portend some unintended political developments in the long run.
One could hazard a guess how far this twisted status can carry Taiwan and how many doors it can open for the nation. The most realistic prediction is: “Extremely limited.”
Even though the government wants to be included in all UN activities and organizations in some capacity, the General Assembly would be out of the question because “Chinese Taipei” does not possess the threshold qualification of a nation state. As to others, the extent of participation would be confined to those that can be placed under Beijing’s thumb.
The proliferation of “Chinese Taipei” might also exert tension on relations between “ROC Taiwan” and nations that recognize it. For these nations, a simple question might soon arise: Are we dealing with a nation or just a territory of a nation? Maintenance of recognition will therefore increasingly become dependent on Beijing’s temperament.
It is apparent that Taiwanese are barely tolerating this particular foreign initiative of Tsai’s. In the next couple of years, should they find Taiwan’s foreign contacts shrinking and trade stymied, the domestic sentiment to formalize Taiwan as a nation state will mount.
Unlike previous occasions, Taiwanese will soon have the tools to amend their Constitution, to carry out a plebiscite and to submit a formal application to join the UN as a member state. These are all natural consequences of a fully democratized Taiwan.
Now, that is an upside.
Huang Jei-hsuan
Los Angeles, California
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