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Government acting more like a trade
emissary
By Lee Wen-chung 李文忠
Sunday, Apr 18, 2010, Page 8
Ever since the government proposed the signing of an economic cooperation
framework agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and China, every ECFA-related opinion
poll has showed that public doubts over the issue have increased while support
has continued to slide. It’s only natural the government finds this worrying and
therefore offers more explanations on the issue, while the Chinese government
has rushed to give up some of its benefits as a favor to Taiwan. The more
explanations Taipei offers and the more Beijing agrees, the stronger the doubt
among the public.
Why? Because the government’s approach to the ECFA talks includes many
unreasonable conditions that appear very strange no matter how they are
interpreted. One must never enter into trade talks saying that an agreement must
be signed at any price and even setting a deadline for it. Doing so means giving
up every bargaining chip one has. Somehow, the government remains oblivious to
this.
In any trade negotiations, the parties involved evaluate the short and long-term
impact on domestic industry and labor. This means the government must make
concessions and compromises with its negotiating partner, while also informing
and lobbying the domestic audience. This is why negotiations are often full of
twists and turns and sometimes fail. In the ECFA talks, however, Beijing has
continuously made concessions and constantly joins the Taiwanese government in
assuring the public that Chinese labor and agricultural products will not be
allowed into Taiwan, disregarding its own interests. This is unprecedented in
the history of negotiation.
However, this is not strange at all, since China’s aim is to create “one China.”
The ECFA talks nominally maintain a “one China” framework while in practice
bringing Taiwan into China’s economic sphere as well as co-opting the public.
This is key to China’s strategy of promoting unification through economic means
and using business to bypass politics in order to infiltrate Taiwan and win the
minds and hearts of Taiwanese. Its strategic and tactical goals are both clear
and well-integrated and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) plays along. Given this
situation, it is clear that Beijing’s offer to forgo some of its benefits as a
favor is simply bait to win over the public.
Ma constantly stresses the advantages of an ECFA and cooperates with Beijing to
sell it to the public. The Ma administration has effectively stopped acting as a
government, functioning instead as Beijing’s business representative in Taiwan.
This alone erodes Ma’s credibility. Thus, instead of negotiating with China, the
government is busy convincing the public to accept an ECFA. Beijing does not
really plan to negotiate with Taipei either. It only wishes to further integrate
Taiwan’s economic interests and tie its economic future tightly to China. What
Beijing needs to figure out, then, is how many gifts it needs to offer to help
Ma sign an ECFA and win the 2012 presidential election to ensure its strategies
prevail.
This is the tragedy for Taiwanese. Beijing is the stronger power, while Taipei
is like a businessman who only cares about the short-term interests of certain
local industries and Taiwanese businesses investing in China. As it proudly
brags about the Chinese gifts it brings, the Ma administration has given up on a
national strategy for Taiwan. Today, the government is selling out Taiwan’s
sovereignty and liberal democracy, and neglecting the widening income gap and
rising unemployment rate. What is the Taiwanese public to do?
The choice is for us to make.
Lee Wen-chung is a former Democratic Progressive Party
legislator.
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