“Why not form diplomatic relations?” has long been a catchphrase for people venting their frustration of Taiwan’s diplomatic isolation.
Due to Taiwan’s intensifying and deepening relations with the US, Japan and other nations, skeptics with a sour grapes mentality have resorted to remarks like “why not form diplomatic relations if things are looking great?”
At a public forum where the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) proposed converting land from Taipei Municipal Neihu Junior High School into office space, skeptics called on the US to form diplomatic relations with Taiwan so that it is allowed to lease extra land for office expansion.
This is an extreme dualistic perspective that only assesses the relations of two nations by the establishment of diplomatic relations while dismissing de facto relations. Despite having formal ties, does the US enjoy a better relationship with China than with Taiwan?
In past 12 months, former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan; the US bipartisan congressional delegation to Taiwan led by Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee; and Vice President William Lai’s (賴清德) trip to Japan to offer his condolences in the wake of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s murder have all been diplomatic breakthroughs.
Nonetheless, the skeptics chose to overlook that there is a large gray area between formal and informal diplomatic relations, while turning a blind eye to substantial breakthroughs.
The biggest fallacy of blaming other countries for not forming diplomatic relations with Taiwan is to commit a reverse causality error. If China had not been pressuring other countries, or former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) had not strongly pushed for a “one China” principle by saying that “Gentlemen [Republic of China] cannot coexist with thugs [the Chinese Communist Party]” (漢賊不兩立), Taiwan would not be in such a difficult situation.
The expansion of the AIT’s offices is now twisted as a measure for the US to evacuate its citizens if war ever breaks out between China and Taiwan. This kind of farcical remark remind Vietnamese of the fall of Saigon.
Before the fall of Saigon in April 1975, the US conducted the biggest evacuation in history, where more than 7,000 US civilians and others were evacuated with helicopters from the city.
This April 15, when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined a ceremony to break ground on a US$1.2 billion US embassy compound in Hanoi, Vietnamese were more than happy to welcome the secretary as the construction is expected to take six years, create jobs for about 1,800 local people and contribute US$350 million to Vietnam’s economy.
As nations around the world are seeking closer ties with the US, Taiwan cannot afford to be left behind for the presence of a few anti-US people.
Chen Chang-jih
Taipei City
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