President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has always bragged about establishing more peaceful and stable cross-strait relations, but his constant concessions to China seem to be pushing Taiwan to suicide, as Beijing has never ceased to demonstrate its territorial ambitions.
Earlier this year, Beijing’s unilateral announcement that it planned to establish a new flight route along the median of the Taiwan Strait — which has long served as the de facto boundary between Taiwan and China — was met with indignation by Taiwanese, as many considered it a provocative move.
Recently, China again asked for the “streamlining” of cross-strait flight routes linking the issue to Chinese tourists making transit stops in Taiwan.
Aside from these actions that show its territorial ambitions for Taiwan, officials in Beijing continuously talk about their goals, even making threats when Taiwanese politicians mention sovereignty.
Earlier this month, China’s ambassador to the US said that Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should not have attended a “job interview” in the US, but instead she should be quizzed by all 1.3 billion Chinese if she wants to become the leader of Taiwan.
China’s recent actions have even alarmed some officials in the government, despite its pro-China policies.
On Friday at a ceremony to promote several high-ranking military officers, Minister of National Defense Kao Kuang-chi (高廣圻) warned of the threat posed by China’s increasing military and espionage activities. However, at the same event, Ma only talked about the need to improve discipline in the armed forces, as if the threat posed by China were irrelevant.
On the same day, when meeting with female lawmakers from other Asian nations, Ma said that cross-strait economic exchanges with China should be encouraged so that the two sides could work together to boost their economies, adding that this is the only way to prevent a war between Taiwan and China.
Nobody wants to see their nation at war, but that does not mean that war should be prevented through surrender. Of course, capitulation would stop a war before it even started, but the people of the defeated nation might face more suffering than would have been caused by war.
The actions of Ma’s administration might remind some of the story of Faust, who traded his soul to the devil in order to gain unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures, condemning himself to eternal damnation. This is pretty much what Ma’s administration has been doing: Ma made a deal with the devil — Beijing in this case — for short-term peace, stability and prosperity, and has been willing to make all sorts of compromises in return.
However, in the end, when Taiwan is completely dependent on China economically and politically, Beijing will not hesitate to take what it wants, possibly damning all Taiwanese.
Faust was saved from eternal damnation by God’s grace. The people of Taiwan will have to make their own grace to save themselves from inevitable suffering.
Fortunately, Taiwan is a democracy, and the people have a chance to save themselves.
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