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Peace pact
jeopardizes sovereignty
By Chiang Huang-chih «¸¬Ó¦À
President Ma Ying-jeou (°¨^¤E) has suggested that a peace accord with China might
be signed in the next 10 years, based on three preconditions: national need,
public support and legislative oversight. Everyone in Taiwan wants peace, but at
this point in time these conditions and this arrangement raise several
questions.
The legal documents used to handle peace-related issues at the international
level are, at a minimum, peace treaties, armistices, ceasefire agreements or
truces, and peace accords.
The first three are international documents, signed between countries, which are
legally binding under international law. Peace accords are documents designed to
avoid civil hardship and put an end to armed conflict between the legitimate
government of a country and an insurgent group or several political entities
within a country.
In other words, a peace accord is a kind of ¡§statement¡¨ issued by a government
and insurgent groups. As such, peace accords not only fail to meet the norms
stipulated in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, they also
recognize that the dispute in question is internal to the country where it is
happening and that the contested land belongs to the same country.
In Taiwan¡¦s case, there is no ongoing armed conflict and thus no urgent need to
put an end to armed conflict. The cross-strait situation is the result of
complex domestic and international issues that have existed since the Chinese
Civil War and the Cold War.
Signing a peace accord would mean that any current or future conflict between
Taiwan and China would be defined as an extension of the Chinese Civil War,
which falls under the domestic jurisdiction of China, therefore increasing the
legal obstacles to intervention by international organizations or other
countries and also causing US arms sales to Taiwan to lose their legitimacy and
legality under international law.
Finally, if the Republic of China¡¦s (ROC) government signs a peace accord with
the government of the People¡¦s Republic of China ¡X the victor of the Civil War
and the government recognized by the world as the only legal government of China
¡X the ROC government could no longer be the only legal government of China.
Signing a peace accord would essentially turn the ROC government into an armed
Chinese insurgent group, according to international law.
History is filled with many surprising and unexpected events. For example, in
their quest for immortality, the ancient Chinese Daoists practiced alchemy and
accidentally invented gunpowder in the process ¡X an invention that was
eventually used to kill people. And because of their deep belief that faith in
Jesus would bring eternal life to his followers, European missionaries wanted to
make church bells that could be heard from a great distance. After a lot of
research and hard work, they finally made bells out of refined steel. However,
this steel was used not only for making church bells, but also in the
manufacture of cannons, making them all the more devastating. These inventions
began with good intentions, but had tragic results.
Ma might also have good intentions and therefore guide his government toward
signing a peace treaty or an armistice with China. If he does not, and instead
intends to follow up on the 2005 Lien-Hu communique, which is about working
toward ending the state of hostility between the two sides and reaching a peace
accord, he would turn the Taiwan issue into a China issue.
This would in practice implement Article 7 of China¡¦s ¡§Anti-Secession¡¨ law,
which foresees an agreement on peaceful unification, removing the legality of
intervention by other members of the international community and tying the lives
and livelihoods of Taiwanese to the goodwill of China. This is an issue that
requires detailed rethinking.
Chiang Huang-chih is a professor of law at National Taiwan University.
Translated by Drew Cameron and Perry Svensson
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