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Make a choice ¡X stop Ma
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Sunday, May 09, 2010, Page 8
President Ma Ying-jeou¡¦s (°¨^¤E) thanks-but-no-thanks to future US military
involvement in the Taiwan Strait promises to outlive all assurances his
administration will be providing to Washington externally and Taiwanese
internally. The simple reason is that the prime beneficiary of the deliberate
remark is China, the nation toward which Ma is diligently prodding Taiwan.
That declaration went further than just punctuating a CNN interview, in which Ma
went to some length to convince the West that the incorporation of Taiwan¡¦s
economy into China¡¦s would advance both the causes of international trade and
regional peace. It became difficult to resist the impression that Ma is
promoting the myth of a peaceful and voluntary surrender of Taiwan to China.
Ma¡¦s unification dream is shared by only a fraction of the Taiwanese population.
This is evidenced by public polls, conducted by both pro-Taiwan and pro-China
organizations, invariably showing that an overwhelming majority of Taiwanese
favoring an indefinite separation of Taiwan from China.
Taiwanese consciousness, the sentiment that most succinctly reflects Taiwanese
longing for formal sovereignty, actually rose in the last two years in spite of
Ma and his Chinese National Party¡¦s (KMT) constant attempt to ignore, if not
suppress it. Democracy and freedom, both integral to sovereignty when Taiwan is
facing an authoritarian China as its sole external enemy, are ingrained in
Taiwanese daily life.
Therefore, any illusion that the absorption of Taiwan into China will be
peaceful and painless should have evaporated the moment Beijing promulgated its
¡§Anti-Secession¡¨ Law, the Chinese statute that outlaws Taiwan¡¦s sovereignty and
its advocacy as well as spelling out conditions necessitating China¡¦s use of
force against Taiwan.
Ma and the KMT have been trying to drive a wedge among Taiwanese by using
economic bait with some success. However, the resulting and widening gulf
between the haves and have-nots will only sow more seeds of instability.
It is unfortunate the collective memory of Taiwan¡¦s last transfer of rule of
similar magnitude at the end of World War II has all but faded away, even though
the suffering lasted at least two generations for Taiwanese.
Taiwanese didn¡¦t have a choice then, but Taiwanese have a choice now, albeit one
that would require considerable sacrifices not unlike prices with which other
societies pay for their freedom.
Significantly, the dynamics involved in Taiwan¡¦s status are far more complex
today than the time of the last ¡§sky change¡¨ more than 60 years ago.
Ma¡¦s push-away of the US may have negated the ambiguity of the Taiwan Relations¡¦
Act that obviously helped to maintain tranquility in the region for decades.
Yet, the strategic significance of Taiwan to the US-Japan alliance remains
unchanged.
Simply put, peaceful annexation of Taiwan by China will never happen. Instead,
the path of least resistance would dictate that Taiwan be put through an
indefinite period of turmoil before ¡X and if ¡X all powers involved can forge a
formula for the status of Taiwan that could guarantee regional stability.
Taiwanese are facing two clear options: Stop Ma and the KMT now or prepare to
endure being a forsaken nation that is perpetuated by external forces.
HUANG JEI-HSUAN
California
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