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Ma sell-out: ROC
erased from world community
By Huang Di-ying 黃帝穎
The consensus reached between former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Wu
Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party General
Secretary Xi Jinping (習近平) on a “one China” principle has been met with an
outcry from many quarters in Taiwan.
According to UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, passed in 1971, the only
legitimate representative of China is the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
The declaration of the “one China” principle that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)
authorized Wu to make during his meeting with Xi is therefore tantamount to
erasing the Republic of China (ROC) from the international community.
Up until now, Ma has limited himself to advocating “one China, with each side
having its own interpretation,” but that has been enough to give the
international community the mistaken impression that Taiwan is part of the PRC.
It has also resulted in the ROC being eliminated from all kinds of international
events and activities.
There are many examples of this.
On June 9, the Greater Kaohsiung City Government signed a sister-city agreement
with Male, the capital city of the Maldives, but the very next day the Maldivian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a strongly worded statement to the effect
that the government of the Maldives was committed to a “one China” policy and
did not recognize the ROC.
It therefore unilaterally annulled the agreement.
When Philippine Coast Guard personnel shot and killed a Taiwanese fisherman, the
Philippine government refused to apologize to the ROC government or to pay
compensation.
At the 2011 Venice International Film Festival, the Taiwanese movie Seediq Bale
was listed as having been shot in “Taiwan, China” — again because of the “one
China” principle.
More serious still, in 2011 the Philippines deported a group of Taiwanese
suspects to the PRC to be put on trial, trampling on Taiwan’s judicial
sovereignty and human rights.
Ma demanded an apology, but the Philippines responded in accordance with the
“one China” principle, firmly refusing to apologize to the ROC government.
In 2010, an internal document of the World Health Organization listed Taiwan as
a province of the PRC, based on the “one China” principle and did not mention
the ROC at all.
Also that year, when Taiwan and China signed the cross-strait Economic
Cooperation Framework Agreement, Ma assured Taiwanese that the agreement would
help the ROC sign free-trade agreements (FTA) with other countries.
Yet not a single country has shown any intention to sign an FTA with the ROC so
far, because they all maintain a “one China” policy.
All these examples show how the elimination of the ROC because of the “one
China” principle has dramatically worsened since Ma started advocating “one
China, with each side having its own interpretation.”
Now Ma has gone a step further by authorizing Wu to go to China and sing along
to the “one China” tune.
During Wu’s meeting with Xi, the ROC’s previous position of “each side having
its own interpretation” simply disappeared.
This is not just an anti-democratic move that has been made without Taiwanese
consent; it is a traitorous act of eradicating the ROC from the world stage.
Huang Di-ying is a lawyer and a board member of the Taiwan Forever
Association.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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