During a meeting on Tuesday with a US think tank delegation led by former US ambassador to China Stapleton Roy, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) reiterated that the "defensive referendum" he is planning to hold alongside the March 20 presidential election has nothing to do with the independence-unification issue. Chen also pointed out that referendums are a basic human right and universal value, and that he hoped to use the referendum to say "no" to China's military threat. The international community cannot accuse Taiwan of being a troublemaker just because it wants to say "no" to military threats, Chen said.
Chen's remarks gave voice to a humble wish of the Taiwanese people. We only want to be free from fear, as do the people of other free countries. But even a small action has invited groundless accusations from the international community.
For a long time, the Taiwanese people have lived in the shadow of China's military threats. In past elections, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) always tried to magnify China's military threat and thereby hold Taiwanese voters hostage and restrict their choices. United as they are on the issue of military threats, China and the KMT-PFP forces have also used each other, thereby shaping a unique mechanism in Taiwanese politics: The KMT-PFP camp uses China's military threat to suppress the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), thereby restricting the ability of Taiwan to enact political reform.
Because the KMT-PFP camp has a vested interest in China's military threats, it has long been an accomplice and even mouthpiece conveying such threats. When it comes to exhorting China to lay down the cleaver, the Taiwanese people can only rely on the reformist forces led by the DPP.
We are grateful that we can hold free elections in which parties can present their platforms at campaign events. Chen has now shone the spotlight on China's military threat -- the biggest psychological fetter for the Taiwanese people -- and asked the international community to voice its support for justice.
Unfortunately, the Taiwanese people's wish has not been understood. The US, Japan and the EU have all expressed concern about the referendum plan because they fear China's military might.
During the 50 years of KMT rule, the Taiwanese people never had a chance to say no to China. Over time, the international community seems to have taken any Chinese bullying of Taiwan for granted. When the Taiwanese people voice their fears, they are called "provocative" by the international community and Taiwan's own pro-unification camp.
Any visit by the head of state to countries that have no diplomatic ties with Taiwan is provocative. Even former president Lee Teng-hui's (
US President George W. Bush said many times that he opposed any referendum aimed at changing the status quo. If Taiwan's anti-missile referendum is an attempt to change the status quo, then apparently the international community believes China's missile deployments against Taiwan are a reasonable status quo -- the Taiwanese people therefore should work hard to maintain it. It is simply absurd to view China's missile deployments as the cross-strait status quo and to discourage any change to it. The international community should show more understanding for the precarious situation facing the Taiwanese people.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS