After Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (
For Taiwan, his statement is serious.
But before he said that, Bush emphasized that US policy is based on the "three communiques" and the Taiwan Relations Act.
Apparently, the US' Taiwan Strait policy remains unchanged, and Bush did not, as some people in the media had predicted he would, repeat his predecessor Bill Clinton's "three noes" policy.
During a press conference after their talks, Wen, in Bush's name, made a heap of statements that conform to China's interests. Bush only nodded and did not speak. At best, this means he "heard" China's discourse; it does not mean he agreed with it.
The point is that Washington's real attitude will only be revealed after Wen returns home. We only have to look at the high-profile reception President Chen Shui-bian (
Wen proudly quoted Bush's statement, believing that the US president had publicly expressed his opposition to Taiwanese independence.
He misquoted Bush, and, furthermore, showed that China must take its cue from the US when dealing with Taiwan. Given that the Taiwan Relations Act is a US law, China must face the US before making military threats against Taiwan.
From the point of view of the US, it doesn't want any change -- what Bush termed a "unilateral attempt" -- by either Taiwan or China to the cross-strait status quo. Therefore, the US uses the "three communiques" to restrain Taiwan and the Taiwan Relations Act to restrain China.
But the problem is Taiwan is an independent democracy, and the sovereignty of a democracy lies in the hands of its people.
If Taiwanese people seek to express their opinions through democratic procedures, will the US really dare to tell them not to do so?
Former president Lee Teng-hui's (
Similarly, Washington may have found it hard to accept the newly passed Referendum Law (
Chin Heng-wei is editor in chief of Contemporary Monthly magazine.
Translated by Jackie Lin
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
RSS