DPP hails
Rice's remarks on Taiwan-US relations
INTERNATIONAL SPACE: A
comment made by the US secretary of state conveyed a message that should set
alarms ringing in the Ma administration, the DPP said
By Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTER
Tuesday, Jun 24, 2008, Page 3
“Ms. Rice was reminding the administration that the US is Taiwan’s leverage
and buttress.”－Cheng Wen-tsang, DPP spokesman
Recent comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were aimed at
reminding President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration that a close Taiwan-US
relationship is indispensable in maintaining regional and cross-strait peace,
the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.
DPP Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said his party hoped the administration
would hear the “alarm bells” message that Washington was sending and use it
wisely when conducting cross-strait and foreign relations.
“Ms. Rice was reminding the administration that the US is Taiwan’s leverage and
buttress,” he said. “A close relationship between Taiwan and the US is essential
in protecting Taiwan’s status in the Asia-Pacific region and peace in the Taiwan
Strait.”
Cheng made the comments while talking to reporters about comments Rice made in
an interview with the Wall Street Journal last Thursday.
Rice said that although the US encourages improvements in the Taiwan-China
relationship, she wanted to remind people that the US has a strong relationship
with Taiwan and would like to see “Taiwan have real space in the international
community.”
Rice was responding to a question on whether the election of Ma had opened an
opportunity to improve US-Taiwan relations.
Cheng yesterday said that Ma had been leaning toward China since his
inauguration on May 20, causing a change in the region’s delicate strategic
balance.
Recent interaction between Taipei and Beijing had apparently led to grave
misunderstandings in the international community, Cheng said. Rice’s comments
ought to make the Ma administration think about the position it must take as it
engages further with China, he said.
Cheng also commented on speculation that National Security Council
Secretary-General Su Chi (蘇起) asked the US to delay Taiwan’s military
procurement package in order to create a more harmonious cross-strait
atmosphere.
Cheng yesterday said that if this were true, it would sound “unbelievable” to
the country’s diplomatic allies.
“It is stupid to abandon the country’s defense and diplomatic autonomy and put
them on the negotiating table as a bargaining chip simply for the sake of
creating a better atmosphere,” he said.
“We hope President Ma’s national security team understands what the mainstream
view in the international community is,” Cheng said.
Taiwan
can't afford Chinese ‘gifts’
By Paul Lin 林保華
Tuesday, Jun 24, 2008, Page 8
As talks were being conducted between Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF)
and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) in
Beijing, the Chinese-language Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao published an article
on June 13 entitled “How should Ma repay China for its big gifts?”
The piece said that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) first step in repaying China
should be to stop desinicization and increase cross-strait exchanges. Beijing
should be satisfied with the Ma government’s first month in office, it said,
because it stopped the issuance of postage stamps with “Taiwan” written on them,
vowed to reopen the Tzuhu Presidential Mausoleum of dictator Chiang Kai-shek
(蔣介石) and announced that the public will be able to exchange the yuan for New
Taiwan dollars.
The article also asked how Ma should repay China if Taiwan is given more freedom
internationally. When it comes to independence and unification, the Ming Pao
toes the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) line, so we should not overlook these
comments.
The cross-strait talks — resumed under the aegis of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-CCP
cooperation — are an outright political transaction. The aforementioned “good
news” generated by the Ma government is bad news for Taiwanese interests, as Ma
had to make sacrifices to bring it about. These cross-strait talks are not about
being “fair,” nor are they about “putting aside disputes” as some say: China is
trying to take away Taiwan’s sovereignty and Taiwan is sacrificing its own
interests.
When China reorganized ARATS, the new position of executive vice chairman was
established under the original positions of chairman and standing vice chairman.
This meant that the SEF’s second-in-charge, secretary-general Kao Koong-lian
(高孔廉), would have to deal with ARATS’ third-in-charge, vice president Sun Yafu
(孫亞夫). The message from China is that Taiwan is merely a local government.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has demanded that the US permanently stop
selling weapons to Taiwan. When a Taiwanese boat sank near the Diaoyutai islands
after being hit by the Japanese coast guard patrol boat, China beat out Taiwan
in displaying dissatisfaction toward Japan and used the name “Chinese Taiwan” to
represent Taiwan — or was Taiwan just deliberately slow in reacting?
While Taiwan is not pushing the issue of sovereignty or the idea of “one China
with each side having its own interpretations,” China on the other hand has not
given in at all on their “one China” policy.
Beijing is no doubt satisfied with Ma’s performance. If he has to repay China
for the “big gifts” they have bestowed upon Taiwan, does this mean he will have
to openly kowtow to China and recognize it as king? Or will it mean that Ma must
keep pleasing China in terms of Taiwan’s relations with Japan and the US?
All the talk about “big gifts” from China is flawed. It is the result of
erroneous reports that have been circulated through media that are sympathetic
to China and unification.
The value of sacrifices made by Taiwan in terms of sovereignty is already larger
in value than China’s “big gifts,” which are really just tourists coming to
Taiwan and chartered direct flights. Taiwan allowed tourists to go to China in
the 1980s; and countless Taiwanese businessmen invested there after the
Tiananmen Square Massacre, helping to save a Chinese economy that was starting
to slip at that time. Now, there are millions of Taiwanese residing in China and
Taiwanese have invested hundreds of billions of dollars there. Yet when a few
thousand Chinese are set to come to Taiwan for a holiday, China calls it a “big
gift.” Does this mean all that Taiwan has given China didn’t amount to anything?
It is high time China cultivated some virtue and a little class and repay Taiwan
instead.
The three links and direct flights between Taiwan and China are merely things
China needs in its battle to “unite” with Taiwan. Taiwan’s response has been to
take things a step at a time. But in the end, China suddenly turned around and
gave Taiwan trouble with chartered flights. Now they are referring to these
flights as a “big gift.” So how can we afford not to be vigilant in dealing with
such an ungrateful, blackmailing, rogue government like the CCP?
For China, Ma may very well only be someone they refer to as “Mr Ma,” but to the
Taiwanese, he is president. As president, Ma is considering whether to hand
Taiwan over to China and just how much he is willing to give away. Taiwanese are
anxiously watching to see how far he will go before deciding whether or not they
want to keep supporting him.
Paul Lin is a political commentator based in Taiwan.