In recent interviews with CNN and other US media outlets, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) stressed the importance of “one China” and opposition to “Taiwanese independence.” He has also told the media that peaceful unification across the Taiwan Strait could be discussed when conditions are ripe.
At the same time, there has been a lively and loud debate in Taiwan following reports that many universities have signed “letters of commitment” on “one China,” that legislators are planning legislation to cancel the pensions of retired generals who travel to China, that one of former vice president Annette Lu’s (呂秀蓮) security guards later acted as a Chinese spy and that Chinese intelligence agencies used Chinese students in Taiwan to recruit government officials.
It is clear that since Ma initiated huge changes to the cross-strait “status quo,” China has taken its “united front” strategy to every level of Taiwanese society, from retired army generals to active majors, from local vote captains to central government officials, from religious foundations to various cultural and educational groups, from professional or non-governmental organizations to family-run organizations and from financial institutions to regular businesses.
If Taiwan continues to follow the script written by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Ma will see his dream of Taiwan being annexed by China become reality.
It is worrying to see that the government has no plans for a strategic response to China’s strategy to annex Taiwan.
Following the KMT’s adoption of Ma’s policy to allow the CCP in and annex Taiwan during his two terms, it is not strange for Taiwan to find itself in this state of abjection.
The main component of the first stage in the implementation of this plan to sell out Taiwan was to use economic means to tie Taiwan to China and go to great lengths to destroy Taiwan’s economic independence.
The first step was to allow and subsidize Chinese tourist visits to Taiwan, destroy the nation’s high-quality tourism industry and force it to rely on Chinese tourists. That was followed by the signing of the unnecessary and economically unhelpful Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) and the signing of several sub-agreements, without any kind of public monitoring.
Fortunately, this process was temporarily blocked before the most influential industry, the service industry, was signed away.
The Ma administration then used globalization as an excuse to try to introduce free economic pilot zones, which was a way to eat away at the nation’s “free” economy and trade.
The more important goal behind many measures to open the door wide to China in the name of liberty was to initiate a plan to import Chinese immigrants, by gradually letting in immigrants in the same way that has happened in Hong Kong, and initiating a semi-colonial period prior to China’s annexation of Taiwan.
From the later period of Ma’s rule to today, the KMT initiated the second stage of Ma’s plan to let China annex Taiwan: Using political means to let the CCP set up an official representative office to speed up its infiltration of Taiwan and promote the signing of a “peace accord” within the Chinese Civil War framework.
The CCP’s office in Taiwan was intended to play the same role as the Xinhua news agency office does in Hong Kong — coordinating the infiltration. Furthermore, it is well known that a “peace accord” between the two parties to a civil war is different from a peace treaty between two states, so signing a “peace accord” would be tantamount to accepting the “one China” principle and recognizing Taiwan as a part of China.
Ma’s statements during his recent visit to the US have been criticized for confusing the “one China” policy with the “one China” principle.
Indeed, the US’ “one China” policy states that there is only “one China,” but it does not include the part that says Taiwan is a part of China, which is included in the “one China” principle that the KMT and the CCP adhere to.
Ma is intentionally confusing the policy and the principle to conform with the “one China” pledge that he made in his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), at which Ma deliberately left out the “different interpretations” part from his “one China” statement, although he had already expressed his willingness to surrender, giving Xi a happy surprise.
Since the “one China” policy does not eliminate the possibility of “one China” and “one Taiwan,” it is not very surprising that the tough stance of US President Donald Trump’s administration and the US Republican Party is causing concern in the KMT and the CCP.
This is also why Ma has been looking for opportunities to make statements in support of the CCP’s view.
The Democratic Progressive Party’s control of the three main branches of government has temporarily put the KMT and the CCP’s plan to annex Taiwan on hold, but this will not put an end to Beijing’s ambition to annex Taiwan nor to the KMT’s disloyalty.
The government must engage in a comprehensive review of laws and institutions from a political, economic and military perspective if it is to slow down the deterioration of the situation.
Past events are an obvious reflection of the fact that reliance on the current set of laws will only deal with different isolated problems without addressing the overall situation.
The Act Governing the Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) is outdated. Why can former high-ranking government officials and retired officers ranked major and above not be stopped from visiting China, or civil servants be prohibited from giving interviews to the CCP’s media outlets?
In addition, the National Security Act (國家安全法) cannot regulate national security concerns arising from economic activities, so why can laws not be written unambiguously to ban Chinese from investing in financial institutions, media outlets or key technology companies?
Taiwan must wake up to the urgent need to create a comprehensive plan to oppose Beijing’s strategy to annex Taiwan, and the government should consider extending the jurisdiction and scope of the National Security Act to include all relations with China.
Even more importantly, until China removes the missiles it has aimed at Taiwan and renounces the use of force to annex the nation, Taipei should lobby the US, Japan and South Korea to jointly establish a strategic Asia-Pacific alliance.
The CCP spent 40 to 50 years waiting to get its hands on Hong Kong and it will show the same patience and resilience when it comes to Taiwan.
If the nation does not take action, Taiwan will follow in Hong Kong’s footsteps. When that happens, it will be too late for regrets.
Leung Man-to is a professor of political science at National Cheng Kung University.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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