Taiwan Today

Taiwan has come under intense criticism over its plan next year, concurrently with the presidential election, to hold a referendum on entry to the UN. One of the interesting aspects of such criticism is that it has been made even though the wording of the question to be asked in the referendum has not been decided. The government wishes the question ask straightforwardly if voters want the country to attempt to join the UN under the name Taiwan. The opposition wants to broaden the question to include other possible names including that of the Republic of China (ROC)--still the nation's official name--although more than a dozen attempts using the ROC name have already failed. While it is not clear which version of the question will be on ballot papers next March, countries that consider themselves bastions of democracy and freedom of expression have severely censured Taiwan for this proposed democratic demonstration of free expression. That China, disliking any exhibition of the popular will, even including voting in TV talent shows, should not like Taiwan's referendum is a foregone conclusion. That United States and the European Union (EU) should seek to suppress a democratically constituted solicitation of opinion would verge on the scandalous if only it was not so much to be expected. The EU wants Taiwan to scrap its referendum while at the same time it talks about pursuing a relationship with China based on values including democracy and human rights--and this from an organization most of whose members want to resume arms sales stopped after the Tiananmen massacre of 1989. As The Economist recently commented "China tells the EU to dump on Taiwan. The EU asks 'how hard?'" The magazine goes on to ask, "why is the EU meddling?" The "unedifying" answer is that "the EU is doing China's bidding." The strangest aspect of the pressure on Taiwan not to hold the referendum is that its critics claim that this is tantamount to declaring independence and therefore destabilizing the cross-Strait status quo. Of course, from China's point of view any action by Taiwan which shows that it is not under Beijing's control is humiliating. But why do other nations go along with this nonsense? Taiwan does not have to declare "formal independence" from China since, if China is the PRC, as Beijing so often declares, Taiwan has never been a part of it. Taiwan has, under contentious legal circumstances, been a part of the Republic of China, but since the Republic of China now exists only on Taiwan, it seems as if Taiwan is thinking of declaring independence from itself. How Taiwan's vote can change the cross-Strait status quo is mysterious to those who see things as they are. And those nations that condemn Taiwan are, of course, not a little hypercritical. For the status quo is that Taiwan is independent and everyone with the exception of the PRC treats it as such. When the United States wants Taiwan to tighten its intellectual property rights policing, it does not send its trade representative to Beijing. Likewise, when the EU feels that Taiwan's waffle market is too restrictive--a recent bone of contention--its emissaries come to Taipei and nowhere else. This doublethink would be laughable were its consequences not so serious. For Taiwan suffers as a result of this hypocrisy; for example its exclusion for the World Health Organization, endangers the health of the Taiwanese and, thereby, the rest of the world. And China is led to believe that there is nothing wrong with belligerence and bellicosity as a diplomatic tactic. We can only hope that the shortsightedness of the self-defeating tactic of joining with China to suppress Taiwanese democracy is understood by these nations before it is too late.