President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in a recent interview with the Indian quarterly India and Global Affairs that there was no timetable to achieve mutual military trust or sign a peace agreement between Taiwan and China, but added that he would make every effort to realize these goals during his presidency.
This was the first time that Ma had broached the subject of a peace agreement with China to an international audience since his inauguration. A series of government measures favorable to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and proposed by Ma were aimed at paving the road for such an accord, I believe.
Since Ma likes citing the classics, he would do well to take a good look at history and consider the consequences of conducting “peaceful negotiations” with the CCP.
After Japan surrendered, dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) dispatched three telegrams to Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) inviting him to Chongqing for peaceful negotiations. But Mao was not interested. Finally, at the request of the Soviet Union, Mao changed his mind and arrived in Chongqing on Aug. 28, 1945. When he saw Chiang, he shouted: “Long live Chairman Chiang.” After talks that lasted 43 days, both parties signed the Double Tenth Agreement, stating that “through peace, democracy, unity and unification as founding principles [the parties will] seek long-term cooperation between the two parties and resolutely prevent a civil war in order to establish an independent, free and strong new China.”
When Mao returned to Yan’an in Shanxi Province, he told party cadres that the agreement was just “a piece of paper,” adding that weapons must be kept ready.
Subsequently, the Soviet Union handed weapons seized from the Japanese Guandong Army and its occupied territories in northeastern China to the CCP for its base of operations to combat the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
After the KMT suffered a crushing defeat, it tried to negotiate peace with the CCP. On April 1, 1949, Zhang Zhizhong (張治中), a confidant of Chiang, led a delegation to Beijing to attend peace talks with the CCP. During the negotiations, the CCP proposed to punish war criminals — including Chiang — abolish the “fake” Constitution and legal system and restructure the reactionary army. The KMT could not accept these conditions, so the six KMT representatives all surrendered to the CCP. The delegation entrusted with negotiations became a delegation of surrender.
Jung Chang (張戎), the author of Mao: The Unknown Story, has long doubted that Zhang was a CCP spy.
As many as 80 million Chinese later died enslaved under the CCP. To date, China’s police system is still corrupt. Moreover, after a 17-point pact was signed between China and Tibet, the situation between the two did not improve but continued to worsen.
Today, Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) does not shout “Long live President Ma,” nor does he recognize Ma as president, while Ma agreed to be called “Mr.” The consequences of further negotiations are obvious.
In 1973, then-US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese Communist Party (NVCP) Political Bureau member Le Duc Tho signed the Paris Peace Accords. Soon after that, both of them were awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, but Le refused to take it.
Two years later, the NVCP occupied the capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnamese fled all over the world to avoid slavery.
Paul Lin is a political commentator.
TRANSLATED BY TED YANG
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