Does the government have Stockholm syndrome? A little more than two years have passed since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office. As well as repeatedly calling for maintaining the “status quo” in cross-strait relations, her administration has recently been promoting the idea of a meeting between Tsai and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
The government’s words and deeds in this respect give the impression that its strategy has gone badly off course and it is starting to sink.
Tsai on June 25 sat down for an interview with a reporter from Agence France-Presse, in which she called upon the international community to “work together to … constrain China and also minimize the expansion of their hegemonic influence.”
These remarks immediately drew a sarcastic response from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光), who accused Tsai of “courting foreign support” and “overestimating her influence.”
This slap in the face was quite a shock for the government, which needed some time to think it over.
Eventually it responded to Ma’s remarks by saying that he was “throwing his weight about.”
Such a response can only boost China’s self-confidence, while weakening Taiwan’s morale.
Tsai would have done better to say that Ma was “incurable.”
Following the government’s remark about China “throwing its weight around,” all Ma would need to say is: “Yes, we are bigger and stronger than you are — just bear that in mind.”
Ma’s remarks are just what you would expect from China’s totalitarian regime. Has Tsai really forgotten the scene that took place following the 2003 World Health Assembly, when China’s then-permanent representative to the UN Sha Zukang (沙祖康) responded to a Taiwanese reporter’s question by pulling an ugly face and snapping: “Who cares about your opinion?”
“Who cares about your opinion?” “Overestimating your influence.” Such remarks pretty much sum up China’s rude, unreasonable and domineering attitude toward Taiwan.
For Tsai and her government to call for a meeting between Tsai and Xi under such circumstances really does look like a case of Stockholm syndrome. Any such call is a big waste of time and heading in completely the wrong direction.
Since Tsai took office, the US and Japan have kept showing her goodwill. They keep passing the ball to her, but she does not want to run with it. Her unwillingness to respond positively is worrying and frustrating.
From the passage of the US’ Taiwan Travel Act to US Representative Dana Rohrabacher’s unprecedented draft resolution calling for Washington to resume normal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Tsai has dropped the ball each time.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, too, has been making moves to get closer to Taiwan, while Japanese civic groups are enthusiastically supporting the call for Taiwan’s athletes to take part in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics under the proper title of “Taiwan” instead of “Chinese Taipei.”
However, the Tsai administration apparently prefers to dodge any such initiatives. Why is anyone’s guess.
Over the past few weeks, FIFA World Cup fever has been in full swing. It would be great if Taiwanese had a nation to cheer for, to shed tears for and to be proud of. Hopefully that day will come.
Yen Li-chen is a high-school teacher and a director of the Taiwan Teachers’ Union.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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