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Opposition must argue
its case
By Huang Kun-huei 黃昆輝
During President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) five years in office, the economy has
slumped, democracy has regressed, the government has become authoritarian and
suppresses popular opinion, social injustices have increased, the wealth gap has
widened and the government has shown itself to be inept and incapable of solving
these problems.
The problems can be traced to a single source: Ma is only concerned with China
and he has no interest in governing Taiwan. This is why, although Taiwanese are
having a tough time getting by and public complaints abound, Ma has ignored all
the problems and has instead chosen to throw himself even deeper into his work
of integrating the two nations.
After signing the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), the Ma
government signed a service trade agreement and is now negotiating a trade in
goods agreement with China.
There are two main points to be made about the service trade agreement: First,
it is an unequal treaty under which Taiwan would open its doors wide to China,
while China will restrict access to its economy. Second, it would open Taiwan
completely to Chinese immigration, allowing Chinese nationals to work and also
open businesses and shops here, paving the way for the biggest influx of Chinese
immigrants since 1949.
Eslite Bookstore’s recent refusal to put the book Death of a Buddha — The Truth
Behind the Death of the 10th Panchen Lama (殺佛 – 十世班禪大師蒙難真相) by exiled Chinese
writer Yuan Hongbing (袁紅冰) on their shelves is an example of how China is
controlling distribution channels here.
If the service trade agreement comes into effect, this control will become much
worse. It will be applied to cultural industries with ties to political ideology
and also distribution channels in industries from food and clothing to daily
necessities.
The reason China is in such a rush to sign economic agreements with Taiwan is to
facilitate the introduction of political negotiations. This was one of the main
goals for Taiwan-related work set out at the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP)
18th National Congress.
In addition to exchanging liaison offices dealing with cross-strait relations, a
wide range of “forums” and “summits” have been established in the two nations to
bring about an atmosphere more conducive to political dialogue.
For example, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the CCP forum for the
ruling elites, the Strait Forum for Taiwanese politicians, the Boao Forum for
Asia and the Zijinshan Summit for Entrepreneurs across the Taiwan Strait for the
business world. Recently, so-called “peace forums” held by politicians and
academics have also started. These forums are referred to as the CCP’s five
major platforms for unification.
The CCP uses these unification platforms to establish what it calls “common
opinions,” “common notions” or “consensuses” to make Taiwan retreat step by
step, minimize Taiwan’s space in the international community to force it into
accepting the principles laid down by the CCP without even realizing it.
The best example of this is former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) who, without
even being aware of it, went from the view that relations between Taiwan and
China should be defined as “one China, with each side having its own
interpretation” to saying that the two sides use a “one China” framework to
define cross-strait relations during the recent ninth Cross-Strait Economic,
Trade and Culture Forum held in Nanning, in China’s Guangxi Province. The same
thing is happening in Taiwan’s political, business and academic realms.
Some say that many media outlets are influenced by the KMT and the CCP, and that
they cannot be beaten. Is this really how things are? When the Taiwan Solidarity
Union expressed its opposition to the ECFA, people echoed the party’s comments.
The truth is that the public does not have a sufficient understanding of the
ECFA, and they have been mislead by the KMT’s promotion of it.
By contrast, many academics and those involved in cultural pursuits like writers
and musicians have come out in strong opposition to the recent signing of the
service trade agreement. They have constantly sought to reveal the truth about
it to the public. As a result, even opinion polls conducted by the Mainland
Affairs Council have revealed that support for the agreement has dropped from 60
percent to 30 percent.
Others say that the opposition parties are in the minority in the legislature
and that they will never be able to out-vote the KMT. The bill recently proposed
in the legislature by the two main opposition parties to get Prosecutor-General
Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) to step down, the joint protests from the various party
caucuses against China’s air defense identification zone as well as demands that
the Ma administration should not provide China with flight plans, are all
decisions made under strong public pressure. This proves that people will stand
up against an inept government.
Opposition to the service trade agreement works on the same logic: The public
must stand up and be counted.
Huang Kun-huei is the chairman of the Taiwan Solidarity Union.
Translated by Drew Cameron
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