Should the National Unification Council (NUC) and its guidelines be abolished? To answer this question, it is necessary to examine the purpose of the NUC and its guidelines. If they are not beneficial to the people of Taiwan and to world peace, or if China is clearly threatening to take over Taiwan by force or subversive means, then they should be abolished outright.
The status quo is that Taiwan is a sovereign nation. China should not try to take over Taiwan by force or by any subversive means in the name of unification. Therefore, abolishing the NUC and its guidelines does not affect the status quo. In fact, it is a necessary step to protect Taiwan from being annexed by China.
Over the past five years, China has not shown any self-restraint in its military threat to Taiwan. It continues to deploy missiles along its coast opposite Taiwan and passed its "Anti-Secession" Law, even though Taiwan has never been a part of China. Most people in Taiwan, including President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), are increasingly convinced that China's military buildup and its 700-plus missiles pointed at Taiwan represent a de facto erosion of the status quo.
The NUC is like an ad hoc committee set up to explore whether or not unification is an option. It is not a legitimate Taiwanese government organization and has no legal standing. Its guidelines are not laws passed by the Legislative Yuan. It can only make recommendations, which have to be approved by the people of Taiwan in a referendum. Independence and unification are options for the 23 million Taiwanese people to decide.
This article examines whether unification would be good or bad for the people of Taiwan.
The Treaty of Shimonoseki of 1895 made Taiwan a de jure part of Japan. After surrendering at the end of World War II, Japan renounced all rights to Taiwan in the San Francisco Treaty in 1951 and the Treaty of Taipei of 1952, without naming an explicit recipient. Therefore, the sovereignty of Taiwan belongs to its people.
Since 1949, China and Taiwan have been two separate states with a special diplomatic, cultural and historic relationship. The unification issue comes up because of this special relationship. Frankly, this relationship has never been good, as China has persisted in threatening Taiwan with military force and blocking its entry into international organizations such as the UN and the World Health Organization.
When two nations are unified, one has to ask if the unification is good for the people of both nations. It is always certain that the more advanced and developed part will take over the other part. Take the unification of West Germany and East Germany as an example: West Germany was much more advanced politically and economically than East Germany. West Germany was a democratic, free and prosperous nation. Therefore, when West Germany and East Germany were unified, the former naturally took charge, and the unified Germany adopted all the political and economic systems of West Germany.
Texas was at one time an independent nation called the Republic of Texas. It was unified (joined, to be more precise) with the US because it believed that the latter had an excellent Constitution for its people in terms of liberty, human rights, democracy and economic prosperity.
Politically backward
In the case of Taiwan and China, the situation is totally different. China is still politically a very backward nation; it is constitutionally a communist dictatorship and suppresses all dissenting voices. China is a totalitarian communist country where people do not have freedom, where democracy does not exist, and where the human rights record is dismal. Since the Chinese Communist Party defeated the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in China, at least 35,236,000 Chinese citizens have been killed by communist China through the early years of "totalitarianism", the Great Leap Forward, the Commune Village, and Liberalization through 1987 (Source: China's Bloody Century, by R.J. Rummel.)
And of course there are the millions of Chinese fatalities from the Korean and Vietnam wars. Tens of thousands more have been killed since 1987 in the Tiananmen Massacre and in the persecution of Christians, other religious sects and Falun Gong. One has to remember that those KMT soldiers who surrendered to the communists were sent to the Korean War. Even though the KMT governed some parts of China from 1911 to 1949, one cannot see any trace of the KMT in China today.
Prosperous and free
Taiwan, on the other hand, is a democratic, prosperous and free country. It has accumulated more than US$400 billion in foreign reserves. Dividing that figure by 23 million people, the average Taiwanese citizen has earned almost US$18,000 in foreign reserves. China has about US$1 trillion in foreign reserves. However, dividing this figure by its population of 1.3 billion shows that the average Chinese citizen has earned only about US$700 in foreign reserves.
This clearly shows that China wastes the human resource of Chinese citizens by not giving them freedom to fully develop themselves. Even though China has made some progress by employing laborers cheaply to produce products for the US, European and Japanese markets, about 80 percent of China's population is still living in poverty. The pollution, hazards to miners' and other workers' safety, and violations of intellectual property rights in China are among the worst in the world.
In addition to its advanced economic system, Taiwan has a well-established democratic system. US President George W. Bush has praised Taiwan as a model of democracy and freedom in Asia. Taiwanese elect their president every four years. The country fully supports freedom of speech and its total number of publications, including Internet content, books, magazines, newspapers, television shows and radio programs, is among the highest in the world. A recent book show in Taiwan attracted more than 440,000 people.
Taiwan is also very generous in helping out other nations. Since summer last year, the government had pledged US$50 million for the humanitarian relief efforts in the wake of the devastating tsunami at the end of 2004, making Taiwan one of the top 20 donors. Donations from the nation's private sector exceeded US$100 million. Taiwan's contribution has far outstripped that of China.
It is clear that Taiwan is far more advanced than China politically, economically and culturally. If Taiwan and China were ever to be united, using the example of West Germany and East Germany, Taiwan should take the leading role. However, this will never be possible because of the China's communist dictatorship and its huge population.
China is bent on swallowing Taiwan and making all Taiwanese people second-class citizens. Therefore, it is meaningless for Taiwanese to consider the unification option. Taiwan should stand up against China and protect its freedom and democracy.
China has changed the status quo of peace and security in the Taiwan Strait. China's army, navy and air force are taking part in simulations of an attack across the Taiwan Strait, and even in the Pacific region east of Taiwan. Chinese fighter jets, spy planes and spy submarines are monitoring US forces in the Pacific. Chinese ships and fighter jets are threatening Japanese gas exploring activities.
Chinese generals and many Chinese citizens have said openly or in private conversations that China has the capability to launch nuclear warheads against Los Angeles and other cities, and they have threatened to do so if the US interferes with China's use of force against Taiwan. All peace-loving nations, such as the US and Canada in North America, the UK, France and Germany in Europe, and Japan, India and Australia in Asia, should be made aware of the danger of letting China attack Taiwan. Taiwan and other nations have to be united against Chinese hegemony and aggression.
In conclusion, we strongly support Chen's recent remarks to consider abolishing the NUC and its guidelines.
Chang Chin-liang, Lee Jong-song and Kenneth Hsu are members of the Austin Institute of Taiwan Studies
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