Truth will set Taiwan free
On Aug. 30, Dennis Wilder, special assistant to US President George W. Bush and the top Asia specialist on the US National Security Council, said that "Taiwan, or the Republic of China, is not at this point a state in the international community. The position of the United States government is that the Republic of China (ROC), is an issue undecided, and it has been left undecided, as you know, for many, many years."
Wilder used the terms "Taiwan" and "the Republic of China" interchangeably.
Apparently, what he meant to say was that Taiwan "is an issue undecided."
He said this because of the simple fact that the ROC, which was once a state, has ceased to exist internationally while Taiwan has never existed as an internationally recognized state.
He also said that UN membership required "statehood," reinforcing Washington's concern that the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) UN bid using the name "Taiwan" is "a step towards the declaration of independence" as US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte warned earlier.
Through the words of these two officials, Washington has finally clarified Taiwan's status and driven the final nails into the ROC coffin.
Washington might have pushed all political parties in Taiwan into a corner where they can prosper only by advocating de jure independence or by joining the Taiwan independence movement. If Taiwan is not a state, the first priority of any self-respecting political party would be nation building. The "status quo" is no longer a viable option for Taiwan now that it is equated to statelessness.
The immediate casualty is the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's (
It has now been made clear now that Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and the KMT, after occupying Taiwan at the invitation of the US military at the end of World War II, became just an armed political group without a nation in 1971 when Chiang's representative abandoned the ROC seat in the UN. Washington formalized this when it severed diplomatic ties with Chiang's ROC and established diplomatic relations with the PRC in 1979. In short, the ROC ceases to exist from that point on in the eyes of all major countries in the world.
Consequently, the legitimacy of the KMT's occupation of Taiwan, once on shaky grounds since it first set foot on Taiwan's soil in 1945, disappeared completely in 1979. Washington's latest clarification might have finally awakened Taiwanese -- especially those who still vote with the pan-blue camp in spite of the reality that Taiwan was ruled illegitimately from 1979 by a renegade armed gang from China: the KMT.
Compared to the KMT clinging to a shattered legitimacy in Taiwan, the DPP doctrines came out relatively unscathed. Washington and the DPP concur on the fate of the ROC and the need to deepen democracy in Taiwan. The only part of Taiwan's status they don't see eye to eye on seems to be whether or not Taiwan is an independent state.
Both President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) made that assertion because Taiwan, if viewed internally, has de facto independence and they believe that Taiwan only needs to be "normalized."
Washington is pointing out that those "normalization" processes would need to be completed before Taiwan has de jure independence and can be called an independent state internationally. Washington is therefore faulting the DPP for jumping the gun.
Taiwan's independence movement, on account of the fact that it shares exactly the same view with Washington regarding Taiwan's status, comes through this Washington barrage flying color. Paradoxically, so does the prospect of Taiwan's UN referendum -- an issue very much in Washington's cross-hairs.
The rival UN referendum promoted by the KMT as a way of confusing voters by asking them to opine whether or not the nation should "rejoin" the UN by using "realistic" names including "the Republic of China (ROC)" has its wings clipped by Washington's clarification, consequently brightening the fortune of the DPP's version considerably.
The lesson to be learned here might be that democratic causes can always benefit from truth -- any ulterior motives behind those bearing the message notwithstanding.
The old adage that "the truth will set us free" might be taking on extra meanings for both Washington and the people of Taiwan.
Huang Jei-hsuan
California
Roosevelt is not to blame
Alfred Tsai's otherwise fine letter (Letters, Sept. 3, page 8) was flawed in being quite harsh on US president Franklin D. Roosevelt. Tsai blamed "all of the current problems in the Taiwan Strait" on FDR's "miscalculation with regard to the Chinese National[ist] Party (KMT)."
It is true that Roosevelt repeatedly placed great hope in Chiang Kai-shek and his corrupt administration, shrugging off the suggestions of many of his advisors.
Most pertinent to today's political situation in the Taiwan Strait is the "Cairo Declaration," which promised that Taiwan would be "restored" to Chiang's ROC after the war. In fact the ROC did take over Taiwan soon after Japan's surrender, leading to forty years of martial law and dictatorship. After the Korean War began in 1950, the US actively promoted and protected Chiang's corrupt but anti-communist dictatorship.
It is sad and ironic that the only major leader of the World War II era vehemently opposed to colonialism and imperialism could be held responsible for Taiwan's colonial subjugation to the ROC. It is Ironic because it was Roosevelt's opposition to European imperialism that led him to so stubbornly insist that China be included as one of the four great powers that would police the world after World War II. It was his anti-imperialist view that caused him to cling to Chiang despite the latter's manifest faults.
FDR desperately wanted a non-white, non-European country represented in the inner circle of what would end up as the UN Security Council. He wanted this as an inspiration to people around the world, as a warning to the European powers and as a simple statement of fairness.
Venal though Chiang was, Roosevelt felt that China would someday be a great power, and that there were no other viable contenders for the role.
FDR was a compromising, Machiavellian politician, and his approach put Taiwan in a tough position. But to say that his action is "responsible for all of the current problems in the Taiwan Strait" lets too many other people off the hook.
A dozen US presidents have come and gone since FDR and not one of them has considered Taiwan a country populated by Taiwanese.
The KMT kept a ruthless one-party death grip over the island for generations and is still trying to subordinate it to China. Millions of Taiwanese, like their US counterparts, don't want to risk their comfort and affluence for an abstraction like democracy.
I cannot blame Roosevelt for his inability to see the legitimacy of Taiwan's independence in the 1940s. What is incredible is how many people still don't see it, even today.
Michael Falick
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Chinese generosity or tricks?
The swiftly rising Chinese economy is playing an important role in the world. The prosperity it brings creates a promising future for the rest of the world. While lots of countries are hoping to benefit from China's economic growth, China is seemingly showing its generosity. It ostensibly treats Taiwan with an open-minded attitude when it comes to economic benefits. Those economic advantages are luring more and more Taiwanese. But is this China's goodwill or simply a trick?
Steven Wu (
Taiwanese should learn a lesson from the Shin Kong incident. People should understand that when China presents advantages to Taiwanese without a fair political system, it is dangerous. With a lack of intergovernmental channels across the strait, the assistance Taiwanese authorities can give to investors in China is limited. In the case of an event like the Shin Kong incident happens, Taiwan cannot help.
Taiwanese businesspeople should protect themselves whenever they can when doing business in China. Otherwise, the Shin Kong incident will be replayed again and again.
Hung Xiao-wei
Taipei
Is raising the gas tax smart?
The editorial exhorting Taiwan to effectively conserve our imported resources covered a lot of compelling points, including the government's fuel-for-pollution program that makes the average Taiwanese motorist very casual about wasting gasoline ("Abandon fossil fuels," Sept. 3, page 8). According to the Invisible Hand, as prices go up, consumption shrinks, right? Jan Shou-Jung's (詹守忠) article ("Subsides, taxes and the price of oil," Aug. 7, page 8) asserts that it doesn't. Motorists simply pay more at the pump to keep their ingrained, polluting habits. Regardless of the pricing scheme, the government and the oil companies make money. But who is standing up for our air, another precious resource?
Taiwan hosts only 0.4 percent of the world's population, but we contribute a full 1 percent of greenhouse gases. The average motorist in Taipei sits at major intersections longer than a minute with his engine running. The stench of street-corner scooters almost rivals the carcinogenic vortexes of filth in Hong Kong, which are said to be less disgusting than those in Shanghai and Beijing. We need to share the air, not only with the planet, but with each other.
Non-moving scooters should never pollute. If Taiwanese people can change this one habit, they'll save hundreds of dollars a month on their commute and errands. They'll pay less at the pump, and we'll all be healthier because of it. A punitive tax that makes the average polluter think twice about their daily habits is exactly what we need.
Everyone, everywhere, needs to conserve our Earth's precious resources. Taiwan's polluting commuters deserve a punitive tax on their casual ways. It's about time the Invisible Hand gave Taiwan's wasteful motorists a good spanking.
Torch Pratt
Yonghe, Taipei County
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