Letters from Taiwan

As Predicted: One China Trap Traps KMT Foreign Policy

More LOLs today as permanent Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) obviously didn’t get the memo from David Lin over at MOFA, that Beijing’s One China policy means a) China is not cooperating with Taiwan on the spat with the Philippines and b) is actively blocking attempts by Taiwan and the Philippines to sign a fishing agreement. Wang, instead, is pissed off that Philippines President Aquino has cited the One China principle as why the highest levels of his government cannot comment directly or speak to Taiwan on the issue of the shooting incident (or “blame Beijing because they don’t want us to talk to you Government to Government as equal bilateral international state actors”):

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III’s reiteration of the “one China” principle on Monday in his first public comment about the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman by a Philippine government vessel has drawn ire from Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who yesterday slammed the Philippines for giving the incident a political tinge.

“The incident had nothing to do with the ‘one China’ model,” Wang said in response to media queries on Aquino’s comment.

In a chance interview with reporters after casting his vote in the country’s general midterm elections on Monday, Aquino commented on the death of 65-year-old Hung Shih-cheng (洪石成), who was killed on Thursday last week when a joint patrol of the Philippine Coast Guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources opened fire on his boat in contested waters.

According to the Philippines’ GMA News, Aquino said the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) will be the lead agency in charge of the issue, in accordance with the “one China” policy.

“I asked the Secretary of Foreign Affairs to monitor, but the lead person has to be MECO because of the ‘one China’ policy,” he was quoted as saying in a comment apparently directed to the repeated calls made by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration that Manila offer Taipei a government-to-government apology.

The Republic of China has a representative office in the Philippines, which serves exactly the same functions as an embassy in the absence of formal diplomatic relatios between the two countries, Wang said yesterday.

“The Philippines can’t treat us this way,” Wang added.

Separately yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said that Aquino’s adherence to the “one China” principle means that Taiwan should not accept an apology from the Philippine government since the policy belittles Taiwanese sovereignty.

First, although I disagree with his acceptance of the toxic One China policy, Aquino is exactly correct in what he says. No amount of indignant exclamations to the contrary will change that fact. Perhaps Ma ‘The Constitutionalist' Ying-jeou now understands what Chen felt like when he was similarly rebuffed and belittled in the international community.  No wonder the KMT is up in arms given that they used to haul Chen across the coals for every slight against Taiwan’s international standing as evidence of his provocative ideological stance on simply stating that de facto independent Taiwan should be treated with some respect as a nation state.  This is deeply deeply embarrassing for them.  Furthermore, it belies the utter failure of the Ma’s diplomatic truce and mutual non-denial chimeras.  Dear Wang, the Philippines can treat you that way and they are treating you that way and if you have a problem with it perhaps you should call the Presidential office to enquire how your Party’s President’s One China policy is not delivering any meaningful growth in Taiwan’s international presence or soft or hard power.

Secondly, I am bewildered by the inconsistency displayed by the DPP over this issue.  They have self-censored and pressured themselves into joining the chorus of outrage fanned by the media and Beijing, no doubt in part out of some concern for the electoral influence of the powerful Fishing Associations. They have also disgraced themselves in trying to outflank the KMT on the Nationalsim / Patriotic Pride card. Perhaps they had no choice or perhaps they could have called for calm and a full investigation first whilst still making appropriate sounds of condolences for the family of the slain fisherman. Now here they are rightly pointing out that the One China policy belittles Taiwanese sovereignty but refusing an apology that might defuse the situation.  It doesn’t get much more uncoordinated and Keystone Cops.  It’s almost as if there’s an election coming up.