Some called it a bombshell, but it was only the bursting of a bubble. President Chen Shui-bian (
The pan-blue dominated legislature, in typical hypocritical fashion, cries that Chen does not have the best interests of the people in mind. That same pan-blue legislature has just cut the annual budget of the council to a mere US$32. This was more than just a slap in the face of the council, it confirmed that even the pan-blues consider the council useless. And for them to complain now that the council has ceased to function only insults the people of Taiwan.
The issue of the council revolves around democracy and misinterpretations of the nature of independence. Taiwan enjoys democracy and, therefore, independence. To unify with a country of its choice is certainly one of its options. Another option is that it remain free and independent. When a political party insists that unification is the only option, as the KMT and other pan-blue parties do (at least, most of the time), it denies Taiwan its democracy.
While the pan-blues are trying to hijack Taiwan for their ends, the goal of the council, ironically, was to establish a democratic, free and equitably prosperous China. This is a noble goal for China, of which the KMT are waishengren on Taiwan, but it rests on a false premise stated in the guidelines, that "Unification ... is the common wish of Chinese people at home and abroad." The Taiwanese people were never consulted or even given a vote in the formulation of this premise.
There is much more besides to illustrate why the guidelines should be scrapped. The terms of the process for unification stated in the guidelines have been continually violated by the People's Republic of China (PRC).
A few examples will serve to illustrate this point. Both sides of the Taiwan Strait should "establish a mutually benign relationship by not endangering each other's security and stability." "Democracy and the rule of law" should be present in both the PRC and the Republic of China. "Both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait should work together and assist each other in taking part in international organizations and activities."
With more than 700 missiles pointed at Taiwan, a total lack of democracy in the PRC, and the PRC's continued efforts to keep Taiwan from participating in the World Health Organization, ASEAN, the UN, etc, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that the council is a one-sided dream fostered by the KMT. It is a dream that is totally disassociated from the reality of life on either side of the Taiwan Strait and which serves only to fog over the reality of how the KMT reluctantly relinquished its martial law and one-party state.
Despite all this, KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
As for its symbolic meaning, Ma is clearly stating: "You were duped, learn to enjoy it."
Jerome Keating is a Taiwan-based writer.
On March 22, 2023, at the close of their meeting in Moscow, media microphones were allowed to record Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dictator Xi Jinping (習近平) telling Russia’s dictator Vladimir Putin, “Right now there are changes — the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years — and we are the ones driving these changes together.” Widely read as Xi’s oath to create a China-Russia-dominated world order, it can be considered a high point for the China-Russia-Iran-North Korea (CRINK) informal alliance, which also included the dictatorships of Venezuela and Cuba. China enables and assists Russia’s war against Ukraine and North Korea’s
After thousands of Taiwanese fans poured into the Tokyo Dome to cheer for Taiwan’s national team in the World Baseball Classic’s (WBC) Pool C games, an image of food and drink waste left at the stadium said to have been left by Taiwanese fans began spreading on social media. The image sparked wide debate, only later to be revealed as an artificially generated image. The image caption claimed that “Taiwanese left trash everywhere after watching the game in Tokyo Dome,” and said that one of the “three bad habits” of Taiwanese is littering. However, a reporter from a Japanese media outlet
Taiwanese pragmatism has long been praised when it comes to addressing Chinese attempts to erase Taiwan from the international stage. “Taipei” and the even more inaccurate and degrading “Chinese Taipei,” imposed titles required to participate in international events, are loathed by Taiwanese. That is why there was huge applause in Taiwan when Japanese public broadcaster NHK referred to the Taiwanese Olympic team as “Taiwan,” instead of “Chinese Taipei” during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. What is standard protocol for most nations — calling a national team by the name their country is commonly known by — is impossible for
India is not China, and many of its residents fear it never will be. It is hard to imagine a future in which the subcontinent’s manufacturing dominates the world, its foreign investment shapes nations’ destinies, and the challenge of its economic system forces the West to reshape its own policies and principles. However, that is, apparently, what the US administration fears. Speaking in New Delhi last week, US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau warned that “we will not make the same mistakes with India that we did with China 20 years ago.” Although he claimed the recently agreed framework
RSS