The "one China" principle is all but dead.
Granted, Taiwan has never been part of the People's Repub-lic of China, but more importantly, over the past decade and a half, the people of Taiwan have made it increasingly clear to the international community that they do not want their country to become part of China and do not want to be placed under communist rule. This is the reality that the US, China and the rest of the world will have to face.
Opinion polls show that the percentage of Taiwanese who favor continued separation from China has increased steadily over the years, while that of those who favor unification has declined. Today, only 12 percent of people support unification.
This trend is also reflected in the outcome of the presidential election. In each of the three direct presidential elections since 1996, and despite China's military threat and verbal attacks, voters elected the presidential candidate backing independence over the candidate favored by Beijing.
On March 20, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who has unequivocally and consistently stated that Taiwan is a free and independent country, defeated a rival who had adopted an ambiguous stand regarding Taiwan's sovereignty and who was backed by Beijing.
Chen secured just over 50 percent of the vote, an increase of nearly 12 percentage points from four years ago, when he defeated two rivals to win his first four-year term.
There is no doubt that Taiwanese identity has increased significantly over the past four years.
After nearly four centuries of alien rule, including Dutch, Manchurian, Japanese and Chinese Nationalist, the people of Taiwan have shown they are determined to exercise their hard-won freedoms and political rights to be masters of their own destiny.
Through the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally, which extended more than 450km and drew 2 million people, and Chen's re-election, the people of Taiwan have resoundingly demonstrated that they reject Beijing's "one China" principle.
Today, Taiwan is a market economy. It has a per capita income of nearly US$15,000, or 15 times that of China. More importantly, according to the US-based Freedom House, Taiwan, next to Japan, is Asia's freest country, while China is one of Asia's least free.
Taiwanese elect all their representatives, including the president, while Chinese are only allowed to elect their township heads. The difference between Taiwan and China is like day and night.
No one should expect the freedom-loving Taiwanese to accept a brutal and dictatorial Chinese regime.
It is time for the US to discard the "one China" fiction, a relic of the Cold War era, and extend diplomatic recognition to a free and democratic Taiwan.
Chen Ching-chih is professor emeritus of history at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.
It is employment pass renewal season in Singapore, and the new regime is dominating the conversation at after-work cocktails on Fridays. From September, overseas employees on a work visa would need to fulfill the city-state’s new points-based system, and earn a minimum salary threshold to stay in their jobs. While this mirrors what happens in other countries, it risks turning foreign companies away, and could tarnish the nation’s image as a global business hub. The program was announced in 2022 in a bid to promote fair hiring practices. Points are awarded for how a candidate’s salary compares with local peers, along
China last month enacted legislation to punish —including with the death penalty — “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists.” The country’s leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), need to be reminded about what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has said and done in the past. They should think about whether those historical figures were also die-hard advocates of Taiwanese independence. The Taiwanese Communist Party was established in the Shanghai French Concession in April 1928, with a political charter that included the slogans “Long live the independence of the Taiwanese people” and “Establish a republic of Taiwan.” The CCP sent a representative, Peng
Japan and the Philippines on Monday signed a defense agreement that would facilitate joint drills between them. The pact was made “as both face an increasingly assertive China,” and is in line with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s “effort to forge security alliances to bolster the Philippine military’s limited ability to defend its territorial interests in the South China Sea,” The Associated Press (AP) said. The pact also comes on the heels of comments by former US deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger, who said at a forum on Tuesday last week that China’s recent aggression toward the Philippines in
The Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday announced that the military would hold its annual Han Kuang exercises from July 22 to 26. Military officers said the exercises would feature unscripted war games, and a decentralized command and control structure. This year’s exercises underline the recent reforms in Taiwan’s military as it transitions from a top-down command structure to one where autonomy is pushed down to the front lines to improve decisionmaking and adaptability. Militaries around the world have been observing and studying Russia’s war in Ukraine. They have seen that the Ukrainian military has been much quicker to adapt to