Because of their political system and disposition, Chinese love to do business that requires no capital investment — especially the most wicked scams. Beijing’s 31 “deceptions” for Taiwanese announced last month is one such trick with the purpose of defrauding Taiwan of its sovereignty.
Scams that are disguised as incentives are the easiest to deal with, but the most difficult to eliminate completely. Taiwanese enjoy democracy and freedom — as long as they open their eyes and refuse to be seduced by these incentives, the scam will fail.
However, unless we adopt former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) “three-noes” policy — no contact, no negotiation and no compromise — when dealing with the Chinese Communist Party, it is inevitable that some people looking for petty advantages will be hooked.
Fraudsters are fraudsters because they do not offer honest, fair and open choices, but disguise scrap metal as gold to fool the greedy. They do not expect everyone to be deceived — as long as a few people are hooked, they will get their payoff.
“What the emperor gives, the emperor can take back,” but the tricks China is employing to annex Taiwan, from big ones down to the smallest, do not appear to be very powerful.
After Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) won the US’ recognition of “orthodox China,” he used every trick and strategy he could think of to make Chiang surrender. He made all sorts of exaggerated offers — there were even reports that he offered Chiang the first presidency of China following “reunification.”
All Beijing needed to do to annex Taiwan was to entice one man: Chiang. However, Chiang saw through its tricks and had sufficient self-control to suppress his personal greed, so his answer was: “No, no, no.”
Even with the persuasive efforts of former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀) and Chinese politician and “united front” expert Liao Chengzhi (廖承志), the offer was still rejected by Chiang.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who accepts the “one China” concept, was all talk and said that he was “selling fruit” when trying to sell out Taiwan, but he has been washed away by the younger generations who see Taiwanese independence as something natural.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who is so eager to become emperor of China, certainly cannot be so stupid as to think that he can entice President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) into unification by offering her the position of emperor. Xi’s eunuchs therefore have to come up with a strategy to entice those who take a dimmer view of democracy.
It will be difficult for those who are accustomed to democracy to adapt to life in a birdcage without freedom of speech, academic freedom or justice. It would all end in tragedy.
It is indeed ironic that the Chinese government’s announcement of 31 “deceptions” took place at the same time that the constitutional amendment removing presidential term limits was announced. Does China’s Taiwan Affairs Office really believe it will be easier for Emperor Xi to deceive Taiwan’s younger generations?
James Wang is a media commentator.
Translated by Lin Lee-Kai
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