China’s “Anti-Secession” Law is a “ticking time bomb,” former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairman James Moriarty said in Washington on Tuesday.
Moriarty made the remarks during a panel discussion entitled “Employing ‘Non-Peaceful’ Means Against Taiwan: The Implications of China’s Anti-Secession Law,” cohosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank and the Taiwan-based Prospect Foundation.
The 2005 “Anti-Secession” Law is China’s legal basis for punishing Taiwanese desires for independence, the panel said, as Article 8 reserves the right for China to resort to force to “unify” with Taiwan if the possibility of peaceful “reunification” is ever lost.
Photo: CNA
China on June 21 published 22 new guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwanese independence separatists.”
Moriarty called the law “a horrible thing” and said that it “asserted a sovereignty over Taiwan” that the People’s Republic of China lacks.
Article 8 allows China to decide when the hope of “unifying” with Taiwan has been lost, he said.
In giving context to the period when the law was passed, Moriarty admitted that former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) did “have us scared” when he attempted to push for a referendum for Taiwan to enter the UN, which could have unilaterally altered the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, a situation opposed by the US.
Moriarty said that the situation has now changed and that on his recent visit to Taiwan, there was no evidence that the nation was moving toward independence under three consecutive Democratic Progressive Party presidential terms.
When bringing up the potential for a peaceful, non-coercive unification between the two sides of the Strait, he said he “certainly” does not see it in the foreseeable future, citing global events such as the Hong Kong protest movement and the war in Ukraine, that have provided lessons for Taiwanese voters.
Given Taiwan’s democratic system, the “well-informed electorate” is “in control” of any unification process, Moriarty said.
While Taiwan has changed in the past two decades, China is no longer flexible or “willing to kick the can down the road” as it was under former Chinese presidents Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Jiang Zemin (江澤民), he said.
The new guidelines have put pressure on the Chinese authorities to act against Taiwanese independence and that under one-man rule, China has become increasingly unpredictable.
“We don’t want [Chinese President] Xi Jinping (習近平) to wake up one day and say ‘today is the day we can make it work’” he said about a potential invasion of Taiwan.
He called for other nations to provide an effective deterrent and to do so quickly, so that Xi would choose not to start a war, and to push back against legislation such as the “Anti-Secession” Law.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS