Premier William Lai (賴清德) on March 2 announced that the Executive Yuan had established a task force headed by Vice Premier Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉) to study the Chinese government’s 31 incentives for Taiwanese, saying that the incentives would be of concern if they were politically motivated.
“Without Taiwan’s help over the past several decades, could China have become what it is today? I hope that China will acknowledge this,” Lai said.
Lai’s concern over China’s motivations and his expressed desire to see the country reflect on its actions and demonstrate goodwill send the wrong message to voters. Taiwan seems too vulnerable to the whims of its neighbor when it calls a news conference or seeks the advice of academics with each of China’s political maneuverings.
The Mainland Affairs Council on Sunday last week responded to China’s announcement that it would end term limits for its presidents by saying it would carefully monitor the situation and act appropriately.
Cross-Strait Policy Association Secretary-General Wang Chih-sheng (王智盛) at the time said that Taiwan must strengthen itself and accumulate “bargaining chips” now in preparation for an impending increase in pressure from China.
However, are Taiwanese to believe that the fate of this nation depends on China’s benevolence? If Taiwan is a sovereign, independent nation, then it should not matter one iota what China — a separate nation — does with its own internal politics.
Taiwan’s concerns with what China says and does has less to do with security and more to do with the relic that is the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution. Evidence of this can be seen in the Executive Yuan’s criticisms on March 3 of Beijing’s decision to merge its Taiwan Affairs Office with its Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, calling it an attempt to belittle Taiwan.
“Unlike Hong Kong and Macau, Taiwan is an independent, sovereign state, a fact that China has tried to undermine by putting the three together in the same sentence,” Cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said.
There is more than a little irony in that statement, given that the ROC Constitution still includes Mongolia as part of the nation’s territory, despite attempts to change this in 1993 and the abolishment of the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission last year.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) said that a proposal to incorporate the commission into the Mainland Affairs Council would “hurt the feelings of Mongolia,” but seems better than holding on to the illusion that Mongolia is ROC territory.
Relations with Hong Kong are similarly complicated, with two separate cultural and economic exchange offices in the city. The need for separate offices stems from historical disagreements over the legality of China’s claims over Hong Kong and Macau.
The government reacting in a panic every time China makes some political move is simply playing into Beijing’s hands.
Issues such as the brain drain are indicative of Taiwan’s internal problems and should be handled as such — not as a threat from China. Raising wages and improving work conditions in Taiwan would keep talent in the nation.
China’s poaching of the nation’s diplomatic allies also stems from an internal problem, and while the ultimate solution is to rewrite the Constitution and rename the nation, in the interim Taiwan must assert its position and stop humoring the authoritarian aggressor across the Strait.
A good place to start would be the elimination of the multitude of government offices dealing with China, Hong Kong, Macau and Mongolia, and the development of a mindset that sees these places for what they are: foreign territory.
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