A leading US specialist on Chinese law and government said last week that Taiwan should have representation in the UN.
The remark by Jerome Cohen, who taught former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) at Harvard Law School, came just minutes into his talk last Monday at the East Asia Democracy Forum held at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in New York.
It drew prompt applause from the audience.
Photo: Chris Fuchs
“I know the significance of the UN General Assembly getting itself together today,” he said. “I think Taiwan should be represented in the UN.”
Cohen, a law professor at New York University School of Law since 1990, told attendees he played a role in persuading the US to acquiesce in giving the UN seat once belonging to the Republic of China (ROC) to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1971.
“It seemed to me that as between the Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) dictatorship on Taiwan and the Mao Zedong (毛澤東) dictatorship that controlled China, that we should have the UN recognize reality and have China represented in the UN by the People’s Republic,” Cohen said.
Photo: Chris Fuchs
Looking back, he said he didn’t think it was a mistake.
“That was 47 years ago,” he said. “But things have changed now. Taiwan is no longer the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) dictatorship. White terror ended generations ago. We have seen more progress.”
The forum — organized by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (臺灣民主基金會), a Taipei-based nonprofit, and Freedom House, an American independent watchdog group — comes just two days after hundreds marched through the streets of New York City calling for Taiwan’s inclusion in the UN.
Not far from TECO, meanwhile, leaders from around the world were gathering last week for the 72nd regular session of the UN General Assembly.
OPTIONS ON THE TABLE
Cohen told the Taipei Times he believes the Chinese government could devise a formula with UN member states to allow Taiwan representation in the General Assembly without “compromising the territorial claim that divides them over the status of Taiwan.”
He said, for instance, that Beijing might insist that Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) adopt the “1992 consensus” as a concession and that Taiwan could enter the UN under a more acceptable name.
The “1992 consensus” refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and Beijing that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) said in 2006 that he had made up the term in 2000.
“If Taiwan refused that kind of compromise, it could enter perhaps under the rubric of Taiwan-China, which has been used on occasion,” Cohen said. “There are many possibilities. International law is full of examples of great flexible formulae that have been worked out to meet various needs.”
Last Monday’s discussion on East Asian democracy also comes as Taiwan marks three decades since the end of martial law. During that period, which lasted a little more than 38 years, Taiwanese were denied such freedoms as the right to assemble, speak freely and organize political parties.
Former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) decision to lift martial law in 1987 was seen as an important first step toward democratizing the nation, though restrictions on certain freedoms still persisted in the years following.
Andrew Nathan, a political science professor at Columbia University, told the audience that China of late is entering back into the debate on democracy by saying it doesn’t work and that its own system is a better alternative.
“This is one of the reasons I think why the experience in Taiwan is very, very important,” he said. “It’s important because it shows that democracy does work. It shows that democracy is not foreign to Asian cultural systems.”
The reason why the Chinese model is supposed to be good, Nathan said, is that it delivers economic growth and results, like the high speed rail.
“The claim by the [Chinese] leadership is you don’t need to know what we’re doing, you just need to see the results and be satisfied with them,” he said.
THE TAIWAN MODEL
“What the Taiwan experience, I think, shows us is that, of course results do matter, but that freedom of speech itself is a result,” Nathan added. “It’s a human value of its own — maybe even better than the high speed rail.”
Arch Puddington, distinguished fellow for democracy studies at Freedom House, said China today is the greatest adversary to democracy.
“They’re building up massive economic power,” he said. “They’re buying influence in their own neighborhood, in Central Asia, in the Balkans, in other parts of Europe, in Africa and in Latin America through a whole series of different initiatives.”
In this year’s Freedom in the World report, Freedom House labeled China “not free,” ranking it “least free” for political rights and close to least free on civil liberties.
The Freedom House report noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is “consolidating personal power to a degree not seen in China for decades.”
It also mentioned the continued series of crackdowns on civil society in China, including arrests and prosecutions of bloggers, activists and human rights attorneys.
Xi is expected to be reappointed when the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th National Congress gathers in October.
According to one expert, cross-strait relations could change for the better following that meeting, as China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zijun (張志軍) and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Yu Zhengsheng (俞正聲), who determine China’s Taiwan policy, are expected to be replaced.
LEE MING-CHE
Several speakers also brought up the arrest and prosecution of Taiwanese human rights activist Lee Ming-che (李明哲), who has been detained in China by authorities since March.
Lee pleaded guilty this month in a Chinese court to a charge of “subversion of state power” and is to be sentenced at some point in the future. Premier William Lai (賴清德) has called for Lee’s swift release.
“Xi Jinping has taken the PRC in the wrong direction, as we all know,” Cohen said. “It’s shameful, it’s disgraceful what he and his regime are doing to the human rights advocates, human rights lawyers.”
Nathan said Lee’s prosecution is counterproductive to China’s efforts to win hearts and minds, which he said China intends to do through economic influence, not by rule of law.
“People in Taiwan of course are concerned about economic growth and about economic welfare,” Nathan said. “They very much have their sense of dignity individually [and] as a collective, as a population. This will make it harder for China to get control over Taiwan.”
During the forum — which also included Global Taiwan Institute executive director Russell Hsiao (蕭良其) and was moderated by Taiwan Foundation for Democracy president Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) — Cohen pointed out areas where Taiwan can improve.
He urged the adoption of an independent human rights commission and ratification of the UN convention against torture.
Cohen also said Taiwan needs to be more active in letting the world know about its accomplishments.
“I congratulate Taiwan’s government on what it has done,” he said. “But it can’t rest on its laurels.”
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had