Voting sends signal abroad
The nine-in-one elections are eight days away, and all camps seem to believe that as voters appear unenthusiastic about the campaigns, the turnout is likely to be low. The thinking is that because many Taiwanese consider the local elections to be less relevant to key issues such as national defense, foreign affairs and the issue of unification versus independence, election results would not significantly affect the direction of Taiwan.
However, we should not ignore another aspect to the elections, and that is what kind of message the results send to the international community.
Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the world has become aware that the Taiwan Strait might be the next conflict point, so it has now started to pay attention to the Taiwan issue. During his recent visit to China, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made it clear that “any change in Taiwan’s status quo must be peaceful or by mutual agreement.”
Of the three major candidates in the Taipei mayoral election, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) is the son of a pro-China politician, while independent candidate Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) was the deputy of a mayor associated with the term “the two sides [of the Strait] belong to one family.”
If either is elected mayor of the capital, the message that Taiwanese would send to the world is that they are happy to accept Chinese military aircraft’s entry into Taiwan’s airspace, Beijing’s “one country, two systems” policy and even its claim that “China will never renounce the right to use force over Taiwan.”
It is possible that the election of either would be interpreted by the world as a move from the “status quo” of separated governance to cross-strait unification supported by public opinion on the two sides. It would confirm Beijing’s absurd claim that the Taiwan issue is purely China’s internal affair, and that it would never tolerate any country or any individual interfering with this matter.
Only by electing mayoral candidates who clearly and definitely uphold the banner of “resisting China, protecting Taiwan” can the public show to all other democratic nations its awarness of the need for self-defense and self-determination to fight against its hostile neighbor.
That being the case, the upcoming vote should not be treated as local elections of little importance.
Chen Li-min
Taipei
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