A conference on “International Organizations and Taiwan” was told on Monday that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) efforts to increase Taipei’s international space had only limited success.
“China has not only withheld support for further expansion of Taiwan’s international space, it has also continued long-standing efforts to squeeze Taiwan’s international space,” said Bonnie Glaser, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The conference, organized by the Washington-based Brookings Institution, heard that during Ma’s first year in office Beijing showed some “diplomatic flexibility,” but that more recently there had been no major progress.
Glaser said that in 2009, Taiwan identified two organizations in which it wanted more meaningful participation — the International Civil Aviation Organization and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change — but that Beijing has not yet responded positively on either.
Instead, she said, China has called for cross-strait “discussions” to work out the terms of Taiwan’s participation in international organizations overall, insisting that a solution cannot give rise to “two Chinas” or “one China and one Taiwan.”
In some instances, Glaser said, Beijing has tried to compel Taiwan to change the name it uses in specific international organizations.
In one well-known case in October, Chinese representatives at the 23rd Tokyo International Film Festival demanded shortly before the opening ceremony that the Taiwanese delegation be renamed “Taiwan, China” or “Chinese Taipei.”
When the festival sponsors decided to introduce the delegation separately as Taiwan, China withdrew and neither delegation was permitted to participate.
Last month, as part of an attempt by China to upgrade its membership status in the Asian Medical Students Association International — from observer to full membership — Beijing tried to compel Taiwan to change its name in the organization from “Taiwan” to “Taiwan, China.”
“And there are many other such examples,” Glaser said.
Another measure of Taiwan’s international space, Glaser said, was its ability to negotiate trade agreements with other nations.
As a WTO member, Taiwan has the right to sign free-trade or economic cooperation agreements with other members.
“Beijing, of course, has not encouraged this practice,” she said.
However, “the mainland has apparently given the nod to Singapore to begin talks with Taipei on an economic cooperation agreement, but it has said that it has to evaluate how that goes before it takes a position on other possible countries entering into negotiations with Taiwan,” she said.
“In other words, Beijing has to be certain that the ‘one China’ framework will be intact. However, a few weeks ago, India announced that it had begun work on a feasibility study with Taiwan to pave the way for the opening of formal talks on a trade agreement. If Beijing does not oppose this, I would say it was a step forward,” Glaser said.
There was some evidence China was increasing pressure on other countries to treat Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
As an example, Glaser cited a decision by the Philippines to send a 14 Taiwanese fraud suspects to stand trial in China.
“It is not known,” she said, “if the Philippines took this action under pressure from Beijing or whether it did it independently to curry favor with China, but either way, it suggests that despite the improvement in cross-strait relations there may be a worrisome trend toward treating Taiwan as an entity and as part of the PRC.”
Glaser said there were also cases of countries seeking permission from China, prior to taking steps to strengthening ties with Taiwan, to prevent punitive actions against themselves.
This was certainly the case, she said, with Singapore, which consulted with Beijing prior to announcing its intentions to explore an economic agreement with Taiwan.
Glaser said that one conclusion was irrefutable: Taipei continues to face very difficult challenges in its efforts to enhance participation in international organizations.
And Beijing continues to prevent Taiwan from making progress.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
New Taipei City prosecutors have indicted a cram school teacher in Sinjhuang District (新莊) for allegedly soliciting sexual acts from female students under the age of 18 three times in exchange for cash payments. The man, surnamed Su (蘇), committed two offenses in 2023 and one last year, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. The office in recent days indicted Su for contraventions of the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例), which prohibits "engaging in sexual intercourse or lewd acts with a minor over the age of 16, but under the age of 18 in exchange for
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty