Beijing’s diplomatic offensive highlighted by Lin Tzu-Yao (林子堯) and Cathy Fang in a recent op-ed (“Beijing’s new diplomatic offensive,” Feb. 7, page 8) is nothing new, as were the authors’ unwarranted smears on Taiwan’s major opposition party.
They peculiarly meshed together a wide array of talking points to try to put an innocent face on president-elect William Lai (賴清德), concealed behind the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) failure to manage cross-strait relations and ties with diplomatic allies.
They also attempted to discredit anyone who dares to oppose the DPP’s imagination-based politics. It was most unfortunate that the authors deliberately misconstrued parts of Taiwanese politics that they are not at all familiar with. Among them is their framing of three critical questions: Nauru’s diplomatic defection, US skepticism in Taiwan and disinformation on TikTok.
It was a national shame that the Republic of China (ROC) lost another ally right after the presidential election last month. Beijing’s warfare on the diplomatic front serves no one and only pushes Taiwanese’s hearts and minds further away.
However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the DPP’s leadership was blinded by its own arrogance, leading to the diplomatic loss.
Nauru’s parliament on Oct. 25 last year passed a motion of no confidence against then-Nauruan president Russ Joseph Kun shortly after his visit to Taiwan for Double Ten National Day celebrations. As early as Oct. 30, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Department of International Affairs director Alexander Huang (黃介正) warned about the possibility of Nauru cutting ties with Taiwan.
If the ministry had been on top of the situation, it could have extended an invitation to another leader who was not on the verge of being unseated. The DPP is welcome to embarrass itself however it wants, but as far as Taiwan’s foreign policy community is concerned, this was a matter that affected the country’s public face.
Not only that, in a news release, the DPP-controlled ministry had the audacity to call Huang’s warning “futile,” and said that the Nauruan presidential election triggered by the passage of the no-confidence motion was “irrelevant,” adding that the ROC’s diplomatic ties with Nauru were solid.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said that Huang’s warning was a partisan “knee-jerk reaction,” even though Huang was simply being kind enough to do the minister a free favor by addressing a possibility with crucial implications.
While making a false equivalence between disseminating Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-sponsored information campaigns and casting doubt on a government’s commitment and intentions is easy, understanding the value of freedom of speech is hard. Skepticism toward a government is the bedrock of liberal democracy, especially when that government’s actions have global consequences.
The global leaders in US skepticism are Americans themselves. Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and the Bill of Rights were never subtle about their distrust in government, and neither are any ordinary John and Jane on the streets of Washington.
Poisoning the well every time someone speaks of the potential misalignment of Washington’s talk and walk only comes back to hinder Taiwan’s hard-won democracy. It does not help with the free exchange of ideas. It risks sacrificing Taiwan’s freedom of speech.
This is best illustrated in the words of American Institute in Taiwan Director Sandra Oudkirk.
“The ability to question governments, officials, authorities means that you have freedom of speech, you have freedom of thought... You only get full understanding if you ask questions,” she said in an interview last year.
“If someone says we don’t think that’s the best choice, we think something else might be better, that’s their opinion. We don’t try to correct people’s opinions,” she added.
At its core, “skepticism” of a foreign government stems from loyalty to one’s own country, with their best interests in mind. Americans are skeptical of Taiwan’s ability to defend itself, just as Taiwanese are skeptical of the US’s willingness to come to their aid.
Taiwanese do not see US boots on the ground in Ukraine. US carrier strike groups retreated following then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi’s departure from Taiwan in August 2022. US Representative Seth Moulton openly discussed the possibility of blowing up Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to keep it out of China’s hands in an invasion. The US left behind hundreds of Afghans who helped them in their counterterrorism efforts. The Fall of Saigon preceded the traumatization of Vietnamese whose lives were torn apart.
Do not forget that the 1979 and 1980 fiasco with Washington, Taipei and Beijing has always been the elephant in the room. A 22-year-old university graduate at that time is only 67 now. Beijing seeking to undermine US-Taiwan relations and the ROC’s international standing is a given, but Washington itself has always been the greatest source of US skepticism in Taiwan.
Think twice about other people’s life experiences before making arbitrary judgements. Contextualize that information.
Disinformation on TikTok undermines the normal functioning of democracy, but it does not always target the same political party. It does not always come from the same source, either.
While I was foreign press secretary for KMT presidential candidate New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) and his running mate, Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), they voiced their dismay about viral fake polls on TikTok in a meeting at the campaign headquarters in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). The fake polls showed that Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was seven points ahead of Hou and just one point behind Lai. TikTok was flooded with them during a 10-day period.
The short-video platform is suspected to be associated with the CCP’s “united front” efforts, while its chief executive officer has become a social media sensation by being bashed in the US Senate. Was it allowing fake content to stay up that discouraged opposition consolidation while everyone — except for the TPP, their supporters and all those they tricked, fooled and deceived — knew perfectly well the TPP was a distant third?
Would that not hamper the alleged goal of the CCP — to bring down the DPP through an opposition alliance to aid its political infiltration efforts into Taiwan? Was not the CCP supposed to help the KMT win the presidential election, so, as some might presume, they could comfortably start political negotiations for peaceful unification?
Beijing’s malign influence persists. Lai’s presidency is to overlap with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) third term. Taiwanese cannot afford to drag themselves into partisan skirmishes in these tumultuous times.
It is OK to feel confused when confronted with these concerns. Not everything is how the DPP depicts it to be, and certainly no one should ever take Lin’s and Fang’s words, or mine, without proper verification. Remember, these are op-eds.
Howard Shen is assistant director of international affairs for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
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