End Taiwan's isolation

VIEW: End Taiwan’s isolation —Charles Tannock

Daily Times, Monday, May 19, 2008

It seems particularly short-sighted, indeed hypocritical, for the United States and Britain to seek to spread democracy and human rights throughout the world while failing to recognise and reward the Taiwanese, a people who have embraced these concepts wholeheartedly
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As protests over China’s crackdown in Tibet and the debate about Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence continue to fester, the injustice of Taiwan’s ongoing international isolation has barely stirred a flicker of interest, despite Taiwan’s recent presidential election and referendum on United Nations membership. This neglect is not only short-sighted, but may also prove dangerous.

This seeming double standard can be explained partly by a sense of guilt: the West has, for the most part, embraced Kosovo’s independence in an effort to assuage its own culpability for not preventing Slobodan Milosevic’s campaign of ethnic cleansing there. Similarly, much of the world is protesting on behalf of Tibet because countless millions have witnessed China’s brutal suppression of Tibetan culture.

Taiwan, on the other hand, does not grab our attention, because it is stable and flourishing economically. It has not been under Chinese central government rule for more than 100 years — indeed, since it was conquered by Japan at the end of the nineteenth century — and it has never been part of the People’s Republic of China. Taiwan is, de facto, an unrecognised independent state with a vigorous democracy and high standards of human rights. Because Taiwan has not allowed itself to become a victim, the world simply does not feel guilty about it, and so ignores it.

But perhaps we should feel some guilt. Taiwan deserves great credit for standing on its own two feet, despite the international isolation imposed. China blocks it from participating fully in the international arena, whether through the World Trade Organisation, the Olympics, or the UN’s specialised agencies, including the World Health Organisation. To its shame, China allows its political goal of excluding Taiwan from membership in all international organisations to trump even urgent public health concerns.

The small number of countries that recognise Taiwan diplomatically is dwindling constantly, owing to a mixture of Chinese pressure and blandishments. On top of all this, Taiwan’s 22 million people go about their daily business knowing that thousands of Chinese missiles are ready to be launched at them at a moment’s notice.

It is not for me to say that Taiwan should be recognised as an independent country. To all intents and purposes, Taiwan is independent already, though without formal recognition. Equally, there are plenty of Taiwanese who would like their island eventually to reunify with China, particularly if China democratises and ceases to be a one-party communist dictatorship. However, we cannot deny that Taiwan’s people are unjustly being refused their place in the wider world.

The international community should do more to usher Taiwan into the international mainstream. Western powers have always been champions of human rights and self-determination within the bounds of international law. The campaigns that the West waged throughout the 1980s in solidarity with democratic forces in Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe helped bring about the end of communist domination. A similar commitment to the democratic rights of the Taiwanese could have salutary effects in China. Moreover, Taiwan is a natural ally of any party that espouses the values of pluralist politics, free markets and human rights.

It seems particularly short-sighted, indeed hypocritical, for the United States and Britain to seek to spread democracy and human rights throughout the world while failing to recognise and reward the Taiwanese, a people who have embraced these concepts wholeheartedly. The message that unquestioning recognition of “One China” is sending is that we appreciate you more if you are a big communist dictatorship than if you are a small multi-party democracy. For the record, there are clear precedents for divided countries to enter the UN as separate states and then eventually to reunify: West and East Germany, North and South Yemen, and perhaps one day the two Koreas.

Ultimately, it is for Taiwan and China to regulate and resolve their relations. There are already some positive signs of a bilateral thaw as a new administration prepares to take office in Taiwan, with high-level talks taking place between China’s President Hu Jin Tao and Taiwan’s Vice-President-elect Vincent Siew. The democratic world has an obligation to support this process — not only because Taiwan deserves its support, but also because engaging more with Taiwan could potentially be a powerful instrument of leverage for broader change in China.

Charles Tannock is the British Conservative Party’s foreign affairs spokesman and the European Parliament’s Rapporteur on the eastern dimension of the ENP