Last week, 24 Republican representatives in the US Congress proposed a resolution calling for US President Donald Trump’s administration to abandon the US’ “one China” policy, calling it outdated, counterproductive and not reflective of reality, and to restore official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, enter bilateral free-trade agreement negotiations and support its entry into international organizations. That is an exciting and inspiring development.
To help the US government and other nations further understand that Taiwan is not a part of China, that those “one China” policies are contrary to the fact that the two countries across the Taiwan Strait are independent and do not share the same political system, and that Taiwan is a sovereign country, the government should bolster international campaigns and use powerful arguments to refute Beijing’s fictitious “one China” principle. That would allow Taiwan to strengthen support from the international community, revise the “one China” policy and earn recognition.
In the book A Short History of Taiwan — The Case for Independence, writer, independent researcher and longtime Taiwan resident Gary Davison breaks away from the stereotypical pattern of “one China” frameworks that many Western academics use to discuss Taiwan.
Davison uses the perspective of Taiwan’s historical development to describe the process by which Taiwanese formed a cohesive ideology of national independence and constructed a national consciousness, providing readers with a solid theoretical foundation.
Through historical reality and phenomena, Davison analyzes the background of Taiwanese independence consciousness by giving a clear account of historical contexts — a superbly helpful explanation to the international community about the history of the creation of Taiwan’s national consciousness.
In light of this, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration should use Davison’s work to explain to the international community that Taiwan is a sovereign and independent nation, work in conjunction with existing international messaging materials, and create foreign language brochures and Web sites so our friends in the international community can understand the causes of Taiwan’s marginalization, and to help the nation break through the restrictions imposed by “one China” policies around the world.
At the same time, Taiwan’s international messaging should emphasize the value of the nation’s global strategic position, its model democracy and its contributions to high-tech manufacturing. With the merits of mutual prosperity for the international community, the nation should urge the US and other nations to amend their “one China” policies, diplomatically recognize Taiwan and assist in gaining UN membership so it could use its status as an equal and sovereign country to conduct talks with China, and resolve discrepancies on cross-strait sovereignty, so they could benefit from peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and in the Indo-Pacific region.
Over the past few years, people around the world have seen the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda and military threats against Taiwan, and the international community is becoming increasingly disgusted by Beijing’s suppression and maliciousness. Thus, if the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) wishes to expand its public support, it would need to abandon its fictitious “1992 consensus” road to unification with China, and instead work with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party on building a Taiwan consensus, come together in response to China’s annexation tactics and use greater strength to burst through the world’s “one China” policies.
In politics and social cohesion, Taiwan is different from China — it is not a dictatorship, but a free and diverse society with a democratic system of governance. It is Asia’s model democracy. Taiwanese have a much greater quality of life. Compared with China, and even some other advanced nations, it has widespread public services that are affordable and high-quality, including the healthcare system, and fast and convenient household services, postal and telecommunications services, transportation networks and so on.
Taiwan’s cultural diversity, liberal democracy and great quality of life allow all Taiwanese, regardless of ethnicity or political affiliation, to enjoy and appreciate the significance and value of their home, which are sources of pride and accomplishment. Those are the values Taiwan presents to the world. They are also the main reason why all Taiwanese, regardless of partisan affiliation, must come together to oppose China and protect their homeland, thereby gaining recognition in the international community.
Michael Lin is a political commentator.
Translated by Tim Smith
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