China has announced that its proposed anti-secession law will be enacted in March at the meeting of the National People's Congress. The details of the anti-secession law have yet to be released and are currently still considered secret, but Beijing has leaked some information through various channels that the law targets Taiwan and its independence activists. It will be used against anyone who propagates the idea of Taiwan's independence -- even outside China. Once this law is passed, any Taiwanese national at home or overseas could become a potential target of this law.
There has been a conspicuous lack of action taken by Taiwanese authorities to safeguard the security and freedom of Taiwanese people. Thus far, the Mainland Affairs Council has been the only government agency to come forward and call on Beijing not to enact the anti-secession law. It is worrying to think about how our government remains clueless about what to do in the face of this threat.
The enactment of the anti-secession law will certainly have repercussions for the Asia Pacific region. Although this law primarily targets Taiwan, China is also involved in other territorial conflicts.
Beijing, for example routinely bickers with Japan over the disputed Tiaoyutai (Senkaku) islands, a thought to be rich in oil reserves. India, too, does not see eye to eye with China on the border between these two countries. Vietnam and the Philippines have clashed with China over the Spratly Islands.
No one can guarantee that one day China will not extend the application of its anti-secession and use it as a pretext to attack Japan, India, Vietnam or the Philippines. If this happens, the prosperity and stability of the Asian Pacific region, and the leading role the US has been playing in this region will face a tough challenge.
China's unilateral proposal to enact the anti-secession law has encroached on the rights and interests of all Taiwanese people, unilaterally changed the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, and constitutes a new strategy by Beijing of using a legal apparatus to coerce Taiwan.
Therefore, the government should take active measures to ensure that the nation's sovereignty is not encroached upon, and to explain to the world what harm this anti-secession will do. The legislature should also enact an "anti-annexation" law or hold a referendum to counterbalance China's tyrannous act and reject the bellicose and chauvinist regime Beijing.
Wu Shuh-min is chairman of the Taiwan Society, North.
TRANSLATED BY DANIEL CHENG
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
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
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not