The Korean people sometimes complain that their country could be described as "a shrimp between whales." Throughout the nation's history, Korea has found itself at the mercy of large foreign powers. Like Korea, Taiwan might also be described as a shrimp between whales. For centuries, the island's fate has been shaped largely by external events and outside pressures.
Beginning in the 1500s, European imperialists sought to occupy Taiwan. From 1683 until 1886 it was loosely administered as a prefecture of Fujian Province, and then it became a province of its own. In 1895, following China's defeat in the first Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan was formally ceded to Japan. Efforts by local inhabitants to resist the occupation and establish an independent republic were brutally crushed by Japanese troops and received no support from the Chinese government or other external powers. The Taiwanese were then enslaved by Japan. No outside power seemed to care.
In 1943, the Allies issued the Cairo Declaration which stated that Taiwan should be returned to the Republic of China. Several years later, Chiang Kai-shek's (
Taiwan's anticipated fall to the People's Republic of China was prevented by the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. The US did not "neutralize" the Taiwan Strait to save Chiang. Rather, strategic calculations led the US to protect Taiwan.
Several decades later, shifts in the international system led US president Richard Nixon to patch up relations with China. According to declassified documents, the president made many concessions to Beijing. In fact, Henry Kissinger assured premier Zhou Enlai (
Since the 1970s, external events beyond Taiwan's control have continued to exercise an inordinate degree of influence over the island. The end of the Cold War yielded some dividends. But more recently, the war on terror has led Washington to move closer to Beijing.
Like the proverbial shrimp caught between whales, Taiwan must chart a careful course in the troubled waters of international politics. In order to survive and prosper, it must avoid antagonizing Washington, its chief ally, and Beijing, its only adversary. This is not an easy task. And it is complicated by the fact that some Taiwanese politicians are determined to play politics with the nation's defense.
If the Taiwanese people hope to have any say whatsoever in the future of their country, it is imperative that Taiwan maintain a defensive capability sufficient to deter aggression by an external power. In the interest of national security, Taiwanese lawmakers should put politics aside and pass the arms procurement bill designed to purchase diesel submarines, maritime patrol aircraft and Patriot anti-missile batteries. While politicians dither and delay, China is deploying additional missiles directly opposite Taiwan and building up its military.
Taiwan may be a shrimp between whales. As a small island, that is reality. But it should not degenerate into a pitiful, spineless jellyfish. There is much that this proud island can do to influence its future trajectory in the global community. One crucial step is to approve President Chen Shui-bian's (
Dennis Hickey is professor of political science at Missouri State University.
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,
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