Republic of China

President Tsai Ing-wen Calls on Beijing to Treat Taiwan as a Sovereign State

By Hsia Hsiao-hwa and Chung Kuang-cheng 

President Tsai Ing-wen talks during a graduation ceremony for the Investigation Bureau agents in New Taipei City, Taiwan, December 26 , 2019. 

President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday that the democratic island would only deal with China on an equal footing, and would continue to insist on its freedom, democracy and sovereignty in the face of a growing threat from Beijing.
In her 2020 New Year's Address on Jan. 1, President Tsai called on China to recognize the existence of the Republic of China, founded after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 and relocated to Taiwan after Chiang Kai-shek lost the civil war to Mao Zedong's communists in 1949.
She said China has used diplomatic offensives, military threats, interference and infiltration to try to force the island to compromise its sovereignty.
But President Tsai said Taiwan would never agree to becoming part of the communist People's Republic of China.

"Democracy and authoritarianism cannot coexist within the same country," President Tsai said.

"Hong Kong's people have shown us that 'one country, two systems' is absolutely not viable," she said, in a reference to the separate legal framework and maintenance of traditional freedoms promised to Hong Kong ahead of the 1997 handover, a distinction that has been gradually eroding in the face of political pressure from Beijing.
"China must face the reality of the Republic of China's existence, ... respect the commitment of the 23 million people of Taiwan to freedom and democracy, and handle cross-strait differences peacefully, on a basis of equality," she said.
"We must be aware that China is infiltrating all facets of Taiwanese society to sow division," President Tsai warned. 

"We must establish democratic defense mechanisms to prevent infiltration."

She said the Anti-Infiltration Law passed by Taiwan's Legislative Yuan on Tuesday was aimed at protecting its freedom and democracy, not hampering genuine economic and cultural exchange across the Taiwan Strait.
"Taiwan's democracy and freedom cannot be undermined," President Tsai said.

China stepping up 'United Front' work
The Anti-Infiltration Law was passed following repeated warnings from Taiwan's national security agencies that China is pouring in backdoor resources and stepping up "United Front" propaganda work to boost support for the pro-China Kuomintang (KMT), or nationalist party ahead of the Jan. 11 general election.
The new law forbids any organizations or individuals sponsored by China from providing political contributions, campaigning, lobbying, or disseminating fake news meant to interfere in elections.
Lawmakers in the U.S. and Australia have enacted similar legislation to prevent foreign interference and to monitor Chinese influence.
The bill, which passed by 67 votes to zero despite opposition criticism, was fast-tracked by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) after the KMT nominated at-large candidates for the legislature with close ties to China's Communist Party, including retired Taiwan generals.
Professor Tung Li-wen of the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said President Tsai's tougher line on Beijing had come after Chinese dictator Xi Jinping's Jan. 2, 2019 speech insisting that Taiwan "unify" with China under "one country, two systems," and refusing to rule out the use of force to annex the country.
"I think President Tsai Ing-wen is very disappointed in Beijing and in Xi Jinping," Tung said.
"Back in the 2016 election, President Tsai was talking about preserving the status quo in cross-straits relations, and was hoping for dialogue with Beijing."
He said her hand had been forced by the uncompromising tone of Xi's Jan. 2 "Letter to our Taiwan Compatriots" speech.
"This made President Tsai Ing-wen feel that there was no way to back down, and that she had to state Taiwan's bottom line very clearly," Tung said.
"[Her speech] comes against this background."
President Tsai looks set to win a second term when the country goes to the polls on Jan. 11.

Media control
Prosecutors in December detained 10 people, including a former KMT staffer, on suspicion of falsifying documents to bring thousands of mainland Chinese to Taiwan, including some who were collecting intelligence.
Concerns have also been raised about Beijing's influence over Taiwanese media groups, many of which are owned by corporations with ties to China.
Support for the pro-China KMT, the party that fled to Taiwan after losing control of China in 1949 and still wants it to be part of a "unified" China some day, is at a new low ahead of next month's election.
The Global Views Research annual public opinion survey said the violent suppression of Hong Kong's anti-government protests had sparked growing fears for Taiwan's national security and democracy, although an internal power struggle in the party had contributed.
Currently, only 4.5 percent of Taiwanese support the idea of "unification" with China.
President Tsai has been a vocal supporter of Hong Kong protesters' aspirations for full democracy, and against the use of police violence and political prosecutions to target protesters, and told a recent presidential election debate that China is the biggest threat to Taiwan's way of life.
Taiwan was ruled as a Japanese colony in the 50 years prior to the end of World War II, but was handed back to the Republic of China under the KMT as part of Tokyo's post-war reparation deal.
It has never been controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, nor formed part of the People's Republic of China.
Taiwan began a transition to democracy following the death of President Chiang Ching-kuo in January 1988, starting with direct elections to the legislature in the early 1990s and culminating in the first direct election of a president, Lee Teng-hui, in 1996.

The kingdom that China just can't flip

By David McKenzie and Brent Swails,

Mbabane, Swaziland -- When 15-year-old Nozipho Mpapane first arrived at the temple as a tiny child, she thought the hundreds of white statues inlaid into the walls were dolls to play with.
"Then they told me it was the Buddha. And I said, 'oh, so this is the supreme being,'" she recalls.
Now, nine years on, she chants Buddhist mantras from memory daily alongside hundreds of other children at the Amitofo Care Center in southern Swaziland.
Ages 3 to 19, the children come to the center as orphans or from poor families; they will leave with an education that includes Kung Fu, Buddhism, and Chinese.
Founded by a Taiwanese Buddhist monk in 2011, the Amitofo center is one of numerous diplomatic and cultural ties that connect Taiwan and the Kingdom of Swaziland, a tiny country wedged between Mozambique and South Africa.
"After Taiwan and Swaziland became friends, it's been very useful for us. Kids in Swaziland can now go to school," says Mpapane in crisp Mandarin.
But the odd-couple relationship, which stretches back 50 years, is fast becoming something of an anomaly in Africa and elsewhere in the world, as countries elect to sever relations with Taiwan and instead forge diplomatic ties with its political rival, China.
Swaziland is the country that China just cannot flip.

Recognizing a 'renegade'
China and Taiwan separated in 1949 following the Communist victory in a civil war that saw the Nationalists flee to the island. 

The two sides have been governed separately ever since.
For decades, China has been engaged with Taiwan in an off-again-on-again diplomatic battle across the globe. 

Every country that establishes ties with China, results in a loss for Taiwan. 

It's an either or choice, or what officials in Beijing call the "one China principle."
With inducements and deals, loans and intense diplomatic pressure Beijing has picked off one African country at a time.
And China is winning.
On May 24, China persuaded Burkina Faso to establish formal ties with China, leaving Swaziland, which is officially known as the Kingdom of eSwatini, as the last remaining Taiwanese holdout across the entire continent.
But questions remain as to how much longer.

The last ambassador
If the only Taiwanese ambassador left in Africa feels any of that pressure, he certainly doesn't show it.
"Every night I fall asleep in just one minute. That is how comfortable I am as far as our bilateral relationship is concerned," says Thomas Chen.
Chen is sitting in a reception hall of the embassy of the Republic of China, as Taiwan is officially known, in downtown Mbabane. 

The name alone would anger officials of the People's Republic of China.
Chen has spent a long career in a diplomatic twilight zone, working for quasi-governmental organizations in the United States like the "Taipei international and cultural office," non-embassies that act as embassies.
"This is the only place I have been called 'His Excellency,'" he says with an impish smile.

"Every night I fall asleep in just one minute. That is how comfortable I am as far as our bilateral relationship is concerned," says Taiwanese Ambassador Thomas Chen.

Taiwan takes the relationship very seriously.
In April, President Tsai Ing-wen, the leader of Taiwan, traveled to this tiny kingdom for an official visit. 

She complains that China is engaged in "dollar-diplomacy" to persuade countries to change allegiance.
But in Swaziland, Taiwan has spread dollars of their own. 

A brand-new hospital is being constructed on a hill above the embassy, rural electrification is led by Taiwanese interests, and Swazi students regularly get scholarships to study in Taiwan.
What do they get in return?
"Formal recognition is very important. If you want to be a sovereign state internationally, you need it," says Chen.

Workers construct the new government hospital in the capital Mbabane funded in part and built by Taiwan.

But how does a country with a population of around 1.4 million withstand the advances of a giant of 1.4 billion people?
Surely, Beijing has deeper pockets than Taipei?
The answer is behind Chen's shoulder as he takes calls in his office at the embassy behind a pine desk. 

It's a silver framed photo of King Mswati III, the absolute monarch of Swaziland.
"I can request the audience with His Majesty at any time ... at his convenience," says Chen.

It's good to be the King
Taiwan's relationship with Swaziland is, largely, with one man.
It's a warm winter day and King Mswati is due to arrive at the opening of a medical storage facility, built and financed by Taiwan.
As with most events, the King arrives in a jet-black Maybach.
In a country where nearly two thirds of the population live below the poverty line, the half-million-dollar vehicle has caused him considerable controversy, so he has banned the local press from filming him inside.
The King steps out of the Maybach to the sound of praise singers.
Right there, on his traditional red Swazi attire, is the instantly recognizable flag of Taiwan.
So far, King Mswati has traveled to Taiwan on 16 official trips. 

Last week he traveled to the Taiwanese capital of Taipei on his 17th.
And he traveled in style.

King Mswati III arrives at the opening of a Ministry of Health facility.

The same Taiwanese company that is building the hospital in Mbabane built the kingdom a new airport.
The King named the airport after himself.
King Mswati III International Airport is in an otherwise rural part of eastern Swaziland about an hour from the capital, the runway is long enough for one of the world's largest personal aircraft.
King Mswati bought the Airbus A340-400 from China Airlines (Taiwan's major carrier) for millions and had it refurbished in Hamburg.
He took the white-and-blue, four-engined jet and an entourage of around 80 people on its inaugural direct flight to Taipei on Thursday.

Real politick
Despite the aid and economic assistance provided by the Taiwanese government, Swaziland's opposition parties allege that the King manipulates the ties for his own benefit.
"I think the relationship between the Taiwan and King Mswati is very problematic. And also, self-serving," says Wandile Dludlu, an opposition leader for the People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO).
PUDEMO and other opposition and pro-democracy groups are banned in Swaziland under the Suppression of Terrorism Act.
"This is deep-seated relationship that benefits only the King and the royal family," he says.
In the hills above Mbabane, in townships like Msunduza, there is simmering resentment against the King and his Taiwanese deals. 

And a frustration at the lack of opportunities here.
But most people are too afraid to criticize the King by name.

Kevin, a spaza shop owner says diplomatic relations, no matter with whom, make no difference to him.

Next to the dirt pitch where some of Swaziland's top soccer players practice, Kevin sits next to a small Spaza shop selling chips and candies. 

He says he hasn't been able to use his IT degree to get a proper job.
"Swaziland is a beautiful country for people who do not know it. We can't voice ourselves out there. If you can't be heard you are just useless," he says.
If Taiwan, a vibrant democracy for more than 20 years, has any reservations supporting King Mswati, an absolute monarch, it keeps it to itself.

BFFS?
The Taiwanese ambassador may sleep well at night, but he might want to keep one eye open.
The chances of China establishing ties here too, is hardly an outlandish idea.
Swaziland's acting Prime Minister Paul Dlamini, when asked, says he wouldn't reject a phone call from China's Foreign Ministry.
Could the superpower have an opening here too?

Flags hang next to a picture of Taiwan's founder in the embassy, Taiwan's last in Africa.

"It is rather difficult to quickly turn against Taiwan, but maybe for development purposes we may consider it," says Dlamini, in his compact office in an old colonial building near the Taiwanese Embassy.
"Development is dynamic and Swaziland doesn't live in isolation."
China recently pledged $60 billion in assistance in Africa. 

And this is a great game that Beijing wants to win.
But Dlamini quickly clarifies.
"That one, rests with the King," he says.

Two Chinas Policy

It is meaningless to perpetuate the myth that Taiwan is a province of China. It is time for Taiwan to become a normal country.
By Salvatore Babones

First the phone call, then the bombshell.
On December 2, Donald Trump reversed 37 years of American foreign policy by taking a ten-minute congratulatory phone call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.
He went further, announcing that he doesn’t know “why we [the United States] have to be bound by a one-China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.”
Trump’s official position is still unclear, but his comments indicate that on the issue of Taiwan, he favors changing a status quo that has persisted for nearly four decades.
The current version of the United States’ one-China policy, which holds that there is only one legitimate government of China, dates to 1979, when the United States recognized the communist government in Beijing while breaking off formal diplomatic ties with the nationalist government in Taipei.
At the time, Taiwan was still a repressive one-party state, but over the next 20 years it peacefully transformed itself into a vibrant liberal democracy.
Bet despite this progress, there is still not a independent country named "Taiwan."
The island Tsai governs still calls itself the Republic of China (ROC).
Mainland China refers to it as Taiwan and officially considers it to be a renegade province, but in practice treats it like a foreign country.
The World Trade Organization calls it the “Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu (Chinese Taipei)."
The United States still uses the name Taiwan and is open about its desire to maintain strong, unofficial relations with the government in Taipei.
Nevertheless, when a U.S. State Department spokesperson accidentally called Taiwan a country earlier this year, it was considered a major gaffe.
But what is Taiwan, then?
Today, 70 years after the end of the Chinese civil war that separated the island from the mainland, it is time for the international community to settle this question.
It is meaningless to perpetuate the myth that Taiwan is a province of China. Rather, it is time for Taiwan to become a normal country.

PUTTING AWAY CHILDISH THINGS
Of course, China may never accept Taiwan’s attempt to behave as a country like any other, and would certainly veto Taiwanese membership in the United Nations.
But Beijing must know that Taiwan is never coming back. 
Today’s young Taiwanese have grown up in a free, open, and democratic society and are never going to vote to be governed from Beijing, especially after witnessing what has happened to Hong Kong. 
Their children and grandchildren will be even less likely to do so.
Beijing waiting for Taiwan to peacefully join China would be like Pyongyang waiting for South Korea to peacefully join the North, and the mainland would not accept the costs of an attempted military solution.
By the same token, even if China never formally recognized Taiwan as a nation, it might begin to treat the island differently if Taiwan behaved more like a country.
If Taiwan wants to be taken seriously, it must behave seriously. Renouncing its territorial claims in the South China Sea would be a good place to start. 
Like Beijing, Taipei maintains a flimsy claim to sovereignty over the entire South China Sea, based on the premise that it is the rightful claimant of China’s maritime territory.
Taiwan’s South China Sea claims are based on the infamous nine-dash line, a rough sea boundary first drawn on Chinese maps in 1947.
The line illustrated the expansive claims over the waters, islands, and seabed of the South China Sea made by the ROC, which at the time was in control of the mainland.
When the communists won the Chinese civil war, they adopted the nine-dash line as the basis of their own claims, and today both China and Taiwan maintain that the entire South China Sea belongs to them—that is, to the real China.
Ironically, much of China's claim over the South China Sea is based on the fact that Taipei maintains extensive facilities on Itu Aba, a disputed feature more than 900 miles south of Taiwan.
But on July 12, 2016, the UNCLOS Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that the island is a rock and therefore affords its holder minimal territorial rights.
Even though Taiwan is not a party to UNCLOS, it should respect this ruling, withdraw from Itu Aba, and return the rock to its natural state. 
Doing so would earn it friends throughout the region, and China can't very well complain about a Taiwanese withdrawal.
Beijing may continue to press its claims in defiance of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), but a Taiwan that is no longer pretending to be China should not be involved in this dispute. 
Instead, it should embrace the peaceful development of the South China Sea under the auspices of multilateral institutions. 
Most of all, Taiwan should make it abundantly clear that it is not a party to the many South China Sea disputes.
Taiwan should also stop playing the aid-for-recognition game.
Taiwan may have given up its claims to govern the mainland in the early 1990s, but it still formally calls itself the Republic of China, and uses financial incentives to persuade 21 poor countries to maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan instead of China.
Taiwan is a rich country that can help the poor anywhere in the world.
Given its own inspiring transition from dictatorship to democracy, Taiwan could play a particularly important role in advising countries such as Mongolia and Ukraine on how to solidify their own democratic institutions. 
The money Taipei spends in exchange for diplomatic recognition, on the order of $200 million per year, could be much better spent funding the spread of good governance in the world's many fragile democracies.

ONE CHINA
But the most important thing that must happen is for Taiwan to drop the fiction that it is the Republic of China—that is, drop the fiction that it has some claim, even if only a rhetorical one, over the mainland.
Such a change would be politically fraught, but it would not necessarily require anything as dramatic as a formal declaration of independence.
Even those few within Taiwan who want reunification now accept that any future united China would be run from Beijing and not from Taipei.
The obvious solution is for the government to simply change the island’s name from the Republic of China to Taiwan, without making any formal statement about the country's legal status.
It would be a declaration of identity, not a declaration of independence.
Even given such a declaration, of course, Taiwan would remain what it is today—a de facto state that is not formally recognized as such.
But for the rest of the world, the change could be profound.
In recent decades, world leaders, (until now including presidents of the United States), have refused to deal directly with Taiwan because they only recognize one China.
But they could learn to deal with a Taiwan that does not claim to be China. 
U.S. presidents, who talk to the leaders of non-state and quasi-state entities such as the Palestinian Authority all the time, could talk to the president of Taiwan.
This development would not make China happy.
But contrary to the alarmist rhetoric of many policy analysts outside the United States, China is not making preparations to invade Taiwan, and Trump’s phone call will not start World War III.
Consensus opinion about the Tsai-Trump call in the United States, which sensibly debates the merits of talking to Taiwan, is much more reasonable.
And although China is adamantly opposed to formal Taiwanese sovereignty, it nonetheless deals with Taiwan, one of its closest neighbors and most important trading partners, in a generally pragmatic fashion.

WHO NEEDS CERTAINTY?
The United States has always had a One China policy.
But that policy has always been ambiguous about the status of Taiwan in relation to that one China. Beijing claims that Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory.
But it makes an identical claim in the South China Sea, where the rest of the world has shown that it will not accept all of China's many territorial claims. 
In this regard, China’s claim to Taiwan should be no different.
Normalizing Taiwan's status as a de facto, rather than a de jure, state may chafe Taiwan hawks who advocate for the island’s recognition as a sovereign nation.
But it is better for behavioral change to precede political change, rather than the other way around.
As long as the status quo continues, and Taiwan makes sovereignty claims on the basis of its self-proclaimed identity as the Republic of China, other countries will be justified in letting Beijing dictate the terms of their Taiwan policies.
If Taiwan embraces a more modest identity of its own, the world may eventually come around to supporting it.