20100522 Beijing one step close to annexing our nation

Beijing one step close to annexing our nation

By James Wang 王景弘
Saturday, May 22, 2010, Page 8

By way of “proving” that his pro-China policies, which will leave us dependent on that country, are of little risk to Taiwan’s sovereignty, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has argued that the US itself relies on China to buy its treasury bonds. This supposedly demonstrates that we have no reason to fear a loss of sovereignty. I’ll have what he’s drinking, please.

The US and China recognize each other’s sovereignty, and China has neither the ability, nor the inclination, to annex the US. Trade relations between the two countries are such that China relies on the US market for its exports and invests in US treasury bonds. The two countries are mutually dependent. Without the US market, where would China sell its exports?

The US has tried to use this as leverage to achieve one of its policy objectives. Since China knows it relies on the US market, the US has tried in the past to make improvements in China’s human rights record a condition for extending it most favored nation status. In response, Beijing has accused the US of interfering in its internal affairs and encroaching on its sovereignty. This, however, is little more than an attempt to cover up its own guilty conscience. Human rights, after all, are covered in international treaties, and the international community has the authority to make inquiries into other countries’ conduct.

Taiwan and China, or the mainland, as Ma calls it, have a different relationship. Not only is there no mutual recognition of sovereign nation status, but it is also written into China’s Constitution that Taiwan “is an inalienable part of China.” In addition, China’s “Anti-Secession” Law declares that it does not preclude the use of military force to bring about the annexation of Taiwan. When was the last time you heard of China revealing such ambitions about the US?

Remember the story of Ah Q, an early master of self-­deluding rationalization? Ma is very similar, as he insists that “his” government’s authority extends over a territory that includes the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Mongolia and Taiwan, and thinks that accepting the “one China” principle will not compromise Taiwan’s sovereignty in any way. How long is he going to live in this fantasy world?

By accepting the “one China” principle, Taiwan finds itself identified with China, and this is exactly what Beijing and the present government in Taiwan are after. This is a major step toward the annexation of Taiwan. In early 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) withdrew to Taiwan and left Li Zong­ren (李宗仁) as acting president of the Republic of China (ROC) to negotiate a peace deal with the Communists, Mao Zedong (毛澤東) put forward his “eight conditions,” including a requirement for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government to send a delegation to Beijing by April 1. That was the year the ROC fell to the Communists.

Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) has taken a page from Mao’s book and come up with his “six points.” Nowhere in these points will you see the actual phrase “one country, two systems,” but the idea is certainly implicit in the “one China” framework and, in fact, in the fifth point, namely the condition of “safeguarding national sovereignty and holding consultations on external affairs.” Ma has offered tacit agreement to Hu’s six points by agreeing to negotiate with China, so how must this appear to the world? How is this not putting Taiwan’s sovereignty at risk?

Thus, while the Taiwanese public is still at a loss as to what is on the economic cooperation framework agreement’s (ECFA) early harvest list, Beijing has already bagged its own political early harvest list in its drive to annex Taiwan.

James Wang is a media commentator.