Voting pro or con Reunification A Theoretic Drill?

Politics Taiwan Politics
1

Because I am a US citizen of European descent, voting on Taiwan’s relationship with the PRC is better left to Chinese from Taiwan.

I have a question, however, which is: “What greater priority has the ROC’s government than the security of the people it governs?”

The clear answer seems, “Nothing!”

Assuming that is correct, what has the ROC government done to make Taiwan known to the average citizen in the world’s other democracies?"

The answer is “Nothing effective.”

That is scarey, because if the PRC bombs or invades Taiwan it will be too late for the world’s democracies to do anything to help Taiwan. Once damage is done, nothing can undo it.

There would be hope, however, if the world’s other democracies could make an outcry before damage was done. They would make an outcry only if their politicians received pressure from voters. Politicians will receive pressure from voters only if voters know what Taiwan, Taiwan’s history, and location are. The average voter in the world’s other democracies knows none of those things, so little is likely to happen UNTIL AFTER any damage is done.

After the damage is done, everybody in the world will know Taiwan, but too late.

If security of the governed should be the first priority of ROC’s politicians, what on earth are they thinking about? Why does ROC not conduct a vigorous information campaign explaining to other democracies what Taiwan is, where it is, its history, and what Taiwan has done for the world (including the PRC)? That is the ROC’s protection, but if the average voter in the free world knows nothing about Taiwan, Taiwan can be destroyed before anyone outside ROC or PRC knows about it.

What does the PRC do? Nearly weekly its smiling well-dressed leaders visit other contries, where they capture headlines or prime time TV coverage. They come across as reasonable men, increasing chances that other countries will view any future acts against Taiwan as not unreasonable.

When the PRC passes its anti-secession law tomorrow, as it surely will, that law will justify in the minds of the PRC’s rulers any actions they take against Taiwan. By pointing to their law they will tie law-driven countries up in endless debates about legal niceties.

Finally after exhausting debates on legal niceties their politicians will turn to something else.

ROC politicians get front-page coverage in Taiwan lifting a glass with the head of a foreign information office. That does no good outside Taiwan.

Those foreign information offices are not on Taiwan to represent Taiwan to the world. They are on Taiwan as unofficial representatives of their governments and of their governments’ citizens on Taiwan.

Is anyone else on Taiwan concerned about this situation?

/s/ Max Roberts

2

To address you question from a USA perspective.

There exists “Taiwan Lobby Groups” in the USA which pressures the US government to act in Taiwan’s interest. However there also exist “PRC Lobby Groups” in the USA as well.

You can read some interesting stuff here about Taiwan Lobby as a smear against Bush.
politicalamazon.com/bush-chinese.html

If you’re talking about grass-root movements in the USA you will note Taiwanese Chinese immigrants and their descents live in voting districts with other Chinese immigrants and their descents. Hence, the pro-PRC immigrant voting power does outweigh pro-ROC immigrant voting power.

Anyways with the looming “China threat” and the fear of James Yee or Wen Ho Lee type of treatment by the USA government. No Chinese American would want to get involved in this issue.

In fact many Chinese American politicians are often approached by both PRC and ROC representative to make a firm stance on the issue. But they of course decline, knowing that their own Asian constituents are split on the issues, and the non-Asian constituents would think that they were too foreign if they promote the issue.

Non-Asians politicians usually with no Asian constituencies will take up the issue like those in FL and CO after heavy lobbying since they have no political risk and can play up the “China Threat” issue.

3

Why should decisions concerning Taiwan be left up to PRC immigrants? :s

4

The Taiwanese public are still divided over their identity after 50 years of KMT rule. It’s regrettable that the government hasn’t done enough to promote the country elsewhere in the world, but in many ways it has its hands tied. The civil service used to be dominated by newly arrived mainlanders, Hakkas and some pro-KMT Taiwanese. 10 years after democratization, a good number of them are pro-unification (or at least pro-unification in a distant future) and they are still a force to be reckoned with.

Some off-hand examples. Just a couple of months ago the Government Information Office recalled a few of its representatives in US and UK after they basically ignored GIO orders to lodge a protest about the BBC’s treatment of Taiwan and talk to CNN about possible cooperation.

There have been similar incidents in Taiwan’s diplomatic corps. There is strong resistance to the emergence of a Taiwanese identity there.

With Taiwan’s identity changing at high speed, one can only hope this old legacy may be left behind pretty soon. The good thing is that the smart leaders of the PRC are doing all they can to help the growth of Taiwanese identity. :bravo:

5

Why should decisions concerning Taiwan be left up to PRC immigrants? :s[/quote]

How are Chinese from Taiwan “PRC immigrants”? Taiwan doesn’t allow general PRC immigration.
Don’t you mean Chinese migrant descendents?
And if you mean Chinese migrant descendents, then that’s because that’s what you are, fool.

6

In many ways Taiwan has lost the PR war to the PRC. It is only fair to blame the government in Taiwan in part though. It also has a lot to do with geopolitics and inherint biases in the world’s major media outlets.

Most of the world in recent years has come to increasing kowtow to Beijing in hope of gaining greater access to its markets and favourable terms of trade. Taiwan’s lack of representation in the UN and other global forums is also a problem. Because China holds a permanent seat in the UN Security Council it is virtually impossible for Taiwan to ever enter the UN or for the UN to censure China over its aggressive posturing towards Taiwan.

Almost all major media organisations have a bureau in Beijing while almost none have a bureau in Taipei. Reports on cross-strait issues are usually filed from Beijing leading to inherint bias despite the fact the journalists may have good intentions. Taiwan is often referred to as the “renegade province” which is a terribly misleading term. In general media reports tend to accept Beijing’s claims over Taiwan on face value without seriously analysing or questioning the legitimacy of the claims.

The result of all this is that if the day ever comes when China decides to “take back” Taiwan by whatever means most of the rest of the world will perceive it is an internal issue of China rather than a gross miscarriage of international justice.