In the week leading up to the 30th anniversary of Taiwan’s first direct presidential elections, former Polish president Lech Walesa visited the nation.
Over the past three decades, he has come to Taiwan numerous times, the first being soon after the first direct election, delivering a speech at the Legislative Yuan on Nov. 1, 1996. He has consistently encouraged Taiwan to forge its own future and advocated for peace.
Walesa appeared at the Yushan Forum on Monday last week and met with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office on the following day. On Thursday, he gave a speech at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs.
At Monday’s forum, he said that there must be a “unification of the Chinese people,” but also said the Taiwanese must be the deciders of their own fate. In his speech at the institute on Thursday, he maintained that unification must happen, but said that Taiwan had already shown the world that it has good economic and political solutions, and therefore it should be Taiwan leading the unification efforts.
As for the model espoused by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which the CCP expects Taiwan to be eventually subjugated to, Walesa said that evidence shows that it is not working.
One could approach Walesa’s ideas as a thought experiment. Walesa was certainly not talking about a situation in which the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan “retakes the mainland” as advocated by Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) — but what if Taiwan could dictate the terms for unification? The CCP intends to absorb Taiwan into its authoritarian structure, and such a structure can only have one master: For Beijing, there would be no room for negotiation, and no room for political reform.
On Oct. 5, 2024, days before Double Ten National Day, Lai mused in a speech that, since the ROC was several decades older than the People’s Republic of China, it was illogical to say that the PRC was the “motherland” of Taiwan, adding that it might be more accurate to say that the ROC is actually the “motherland” of those aged 75 or older — even in China. This was almost certainly only meant to be a thought experiment, too, to serve as pushback against the CCP narrative. Lai is uninterested in having Taiwan take political control over the territory of China.
Walesa’s ideas were avidly dissected in the media, albeit through the lens of ideological bias. The pro-Taiwan, pan-green media emphasized the parts about Taiwan being an economic and political exemplar, of the poor fit of communism in China and of the need for the Taiwanese to be the masters of their fate. The pro-China, pan-blue media spoke more of the idea that unification was the only way forward. Both of these miss the point.
In the Yushan forum speech, Walesa was not talking about “reunification” of China in the way that Chiang intended and which former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) sought to transition away from; neither was he talking about the “eventual unification” that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) now seeks; he was not even talking about the economic, political and national decoupling that Lai and the Democratic Progressive Party want to achieve.
Walesa was not talking about the unification of “China.” He specifically referred to the unification of the Chinese people, and on multiple occasions in his speech referred to the EU model of regional integration, of coming together in a format based on dialogue and the values of peace, for the good of all parties.
It was a message of hope, and one that the CCP should consider if it wants to ensure its own national security. As an ally, on equal footing within the context of regional integration, Taiwan would be of huge benefit to China.
Consider the alternative: As Richard D. Fisher noted in his On Taiwan column (“Iran-Venezuela lessons for Taiwan,” page 8, March 16), if the CCP does ever annex Taiwan in the way it intends, it would be even more vulnerable than it is now, regarded as an immediate threat to other democracies who would have “no choice but to combine in an anti-CCP alliance.”
Walesa’s words could be a thought experiment that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) might want to contemplate.
What began on Feb. 28 as a military campaign against Iran quickly became the largest energy-supply disruption in modern times. Unlike the oil crises of the 1970s, which stemmed from producer-led embargoes, US President Donald Trump is the first leader in modern history to trigger a cascading global energy crisis through direct military action. In the process, Trump has also laid bare Taiwan’s strategic and economic fragilities, offering Beijing a real-time tutorial in how to exploit them. Repairing the damage to Persian Gulf oil and gas infrastructure could take years, suggesting that elevated energy prices are likely to persist. But the most
In late January, Taiwan’s first indigenous submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), completed its first submerged dive, reaching a depth of roughly 50m during trials in the waters off Kaohsiung. By March, it had managed a fifth dive, still well short of the deep-water and endurance tests required before the navy could accept the vessel. The original delivery deadline of November last year passed months ago. CSBC Corp, Taiwan, the lead contractor, now targets June and the Ministry of National Defense is levying daily penalties for every day the submarine remains unfinished. The Hai Kun was supposed to be
The Legislative Yuan on Friday held another cross-party caucus negotiation on a special act for bolstering national defense that the Executive Yuan had proposed last year. The party caucuses failed to reach a consensus on several key provisions, so the next session is scheduled for today, where many believe substantial progress would finally be made. The plan for an eight-year NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.59 billion) special defense budget was first proposed by the Cabinet in November last year, but the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers have continuously blocked it from being listed on the agenda for
On Tuesday last week, the Presidential Office announced, less than 24 hours before he was scheduled to depart, that President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned official trip to Eswatini, Taiwan’s sole diplomatic ally in Africa, had been delayed. It said that the three island nations of Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar had, without prior notice, revoked the charter plane’s overflight permits following “intense pressure” from China. Lai, in his capacity as the Republic of China’s (ROC) president, was to attend the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession. King Mswati visited Taiwan to attend Lai’s inauguration in 2024. This is the first
RSS