The humiliating direct sea and air transportation agreements signed by Taiwan and China — which basically forfeit Taiwan’s sovereignty — have been forced through in the legislature.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said the pacts did not touch on sovereignty issues and that cross-strait routes were neither domestic nor international. However, under the agreements, although direct sea and air links are defined as “special routes,” they have in effect become domestic routes. Not only does this sabotage the country’s sovereignty, but it will hurt economic development. The pacts have set up a Chinese trap for improving cross-strait relations by sacrificing Taiwan’s international ties.
Because the cross-strait air routes have not been registered with the International Air Transport Association as required by international rules, they are considered domestic ones. These deals are now also wreaking havoc on sea transportation, which had been insulated from the sovereignty dispute.
International custom considers seaports free and open, and exchanges between seaports in two countries do not require government negotiations as long as marine companies and seaports reach agreements.
As for routes between domestic ports, foreign ships are in principle banned from entering and transporting goods. The Ma government could have avoided conducting negotiations with China, but it did and reached an agreement that only ships registered under the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) are eligible for cross-strait sea routes. These routes have thus been made domestic. Moreover, the agreement will lay more restrictions on the nation’s flag-of-convenience ships and is extremely detrimental to the domestic shipping industry and ports.
By law, each Taiwanese ship could hire two foreign Grade A sailors and half of its Grade B sailors must be Taiwanese. Given the fact that Chinese vessels hire sailors at very low rates, there is a big difference in employment cost. Worse yet, although wages for Taiwanese sailors are much higher than those of their foreign colleagues, Taiwanese crew still are not willing to work.
Ninety-seven percent of Taiwanese cargo vessels are registered under flags of convenience. Since Chinese cargo ships do not have problems with crew employment and carry far higher volumes than Taiwanese ships, the agreements allowing only Chinese and Taiwanese vessels on the cross-strait routes will put Taiwanese ships in a completely disadvantageous position.
Not only that, the domestic cross-strait routes will also put restrictions on foreign air and sea lines and cause harm to the international competitiveness of domestic sea and air ports.
The so-called Asia-Pacific sea and air transportation hub has become a pipe dream. What’s worse, in order to solve this strange sea transportation system, Ma’s administration has reached a consensus with China that the country of registration of Taiwan’s flag-of-convenience ships can be converted to Hong Kong. But doing so will only increase cost and is tantamount to forcing Taiwanese ships to register under the Chinese flag.
To disguise the fact that the agreements compromise Taiwan’s sovereignty, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications has said foreign ships have shown keen interest in changing their country of registration to Taiwan. This is a joke. Even if we were to ignore the fact that half of the crew must be Taiwanese, it would still be impossible because 50 percent of the ship must be Taiwanese-owned.
The Ma government has sacrificed the nation’s sovereignty. He has an incomparable ability to both humiliate the nation and forfeit its sovereignty.
Lin Cho-shui is a former Democratic Progressive Party legislator.
TRANSLATED BY TED YANG
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) were born under the sign of Gemini. Geminis are known for their intelligence, creativity, adaptability and flexibility. It is unlikely, then, that the trade conflict between the US and China would escalate into a catastrophic collision. It is more probable that both sides would seek a way to de-escalate, paving the way for a Trump-Xi summit that allows the global economy some breathing room. Practically speaking, China and the US have vulnerabilities, and a prolonged trade war would be damaging for both. In the US, the electoral system means that public opinion
RSS