The growing global unease over safety of Chinese goods culminated in a lengthy article in the July 23 issue of Business Week that attempted to offer a broad yet penetrating look at the background behind the hoopla.
Days later, the EU -- following Washington's lead -- resolved to frown on President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) bid to apply for UN membership under the name of "Taiwan."
The conclusion of the Business Week article is that halting China's shoddy practices on both products and environment would require nothing short of dismantling the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). That's remarkable considering that the article refrained from delving into the more insidious exploitation the vast majority of the Chinese people suffer at the hands of a relative few.
The assertion that the main culprit here is the lack of checks-and-balances that democracy can provide only goes to reinforce the case against Beijing's wishful premise that the liberation of the economy doesn't necessitate a likewise loosening of shackles on political freedom.
To identify where the steaming colossal ship of China's economy has sprung a serious leak in a thoroughly corroded hull, the article zooms in on Beijing's failure to convey its authority to the local levels, where laws are routinely ignored in the name of prosperity and -- more often than not -- personal greed.
That ought to surprise no one considering that some 3 million CCP members -- a burgeoning rank compared to practically none only a few years ago -- engage in private enterprises. In other words, by and large, the CCP today is collaborating with foreign commercial interests to milk not only China's manpower but also its environment.
Contrasting to the glowing accounts China's economy routinely received in the last few years, a new picture seems to emerge from the latest vetting of China's two-decade-old head-first plunge into capitalism. It's a picture of plundering of natural resources, of ravaging of environment, of looming eco-crises, of disruption of social fabrics and of "endemic corruption."
The CCP is brutal and efficient at controlling the general Chinese public but would seem to turn into jelly when dealing with its own rank and file, save for instances when the application of the rule of law becomes the tool of choice as well as a cover for a power struggle. After all, the CCP members comprise the core support of the party. It then follows that some vital issues -- including the environment and the safety of food and drugs, if they were hurting CCP members' pocket books -- would never be adequately addressed.
As a consequence, manufacturers of goods, both domestic and international, have no compunction about dumping undesirable substances into China's water, soil and air. Practices shunned in many parts of the world are commonplace in China.
The CCP, ever since its inception, made redress of China's humiliation at the hands of foreign colonialist powers one of its paramount goals.
There is then no shortage of irony if the CCP might have inadvertently brought another form of colonialism on China in the guise of international commerce.
The devastation to China's society, if unchecked, could easily recall the pre-Opium War era with one exception.
This time around, the well-stocked Chinese national coffers afford amassing an increasingly impressive array of military hardware that bodes badly for a likely confrontation with the West. No matter how China would fare in the eventual showdown, it would once again plunge the country to the bottom of its historically destined cyclical fortune.
It is precisely this alternate boom-and-bust nature of China's fate from which Taiwan would desire to exit. Taiwanese would like to minimize the fall-out they might receive when China's bubble finally bursts.
Much must be done to position Taiwan for that fateful moment.
A new constitution would be indispensable in ridding Taiwan of the rampant neo-colonialism that is sapping the nation's vitality through internal division.
Specifically, a new constitution, that at least defines the nation's territories, would make it clear to the future generations of Taiwanese just who they are and where their loyalty should reside. This would go a long way to counter the confusion the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), through its half-century of colonial rule, sought to sow in the mind of the Taiwanese public. Taiwan's ultimate survival depends on that clarity.
Given that the objections coming from both the US and the EU on Taiwan's UN bid are the results of Beijing's urging, the damage to their relationship with Taiwan should be short-lived. Compared to the extent to which Taiwan's current pan blue-effected reluctance to arm is straining the US-Taiwan strategic partnership, Taiwan's UN bid should have negligible effect in estranging Taiwan from the US in the long run.
Buttressing this argument is the fact that sovereignty-building efforts such as a new constitution and the UN effort would go hand in hand with Taiwan's desire to strengthen its defense.
The inexorable truth remains that the significance of personal long-term survival should invariably trump concerns for short-term inconvenience to friends.
A new constitution and Taiwan's continued efforts to join international organizations could constitute the one-two punch Taiwan needs to plow through domestic and international hurdles and to emerge solid and ready to seize the opportunity Beijing will ultimately serve up.
Huang Jei-hsuan
California
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
RSS