Hsu Shi-kai, chairman of the Taiwan Independence Party (TAIP), has advocated independence for decades. Here, he criticizes current cross-strait policy and suggests ways for Taiwan to go it alone internationally.
FCR: What's the fallout from the Clinton-Jiang meeting?
Hsu Shi-kai (許士楷): There's a crisis in diplomacy, and it's been caused by our own government. Why? The first two of the three noes came from our government. This time China was wise enough to focus on the Taiwan Relations Act, which secures Taiwan and prevents China from using military force against it by providing us with enough defensive weapons. The Act also stipulates that the United States would take appropriate action should China threaten Taiwan with military force.
To test the US bottom line, China test-fired missiles into Taiwan waters two years ago and got two US aircraft carriers in return. The US response prompted China to make every effort to get rid of the Act, and the result was the three noes. As a matter of fact, the three noes were already on the agenda when Jiang met Clinton last time in Washington, but the US rejected them.
This time China succeeded. It showed that China had picked the right topic at the right time. China knew well enough that the first two noes were agreed to by the KMT government--even though everyone, China included, knew that the KMT just supported them superficially, that its real goal was seeking two Chinas, or one China and one Taiwan. In other words, the KMT was actually seeking an independent Taiwan, although it would never admit it. This time, when the United States made such a direct and clear statement of the three noes, it made the KMT look dumb.
As for the third no--no support for Taiwan's joining international organizations that require nationality--in fact, the KMT regime ironically is for that as well. The government still claims that it would only return to the United Nations under the name of the Republic of China, because UN Resolution 2758, which was passed in 1970 and excluded the ROC, was unjustified and should be corrected. But when the KMT government focuses on this resolution, it is still involved in an obsolete topic: It views Taiwan affairs from the perspective of all China. We have long advocated that Taiwan should avoid falling into past entanglements. Now that we've become a new country, we want to enter the UN under a new name. But the KMT regime would never tolerate that and therefore insists on using the name of the ROC.
Yet the cruel fact is that it won't work. The reason is that when the UN resolution was passed, China had low international status. But now that it has become one of the most powerful countries in the world, it would never allow Taiwan to enter the UN under a new name. The KMT regime has been deceiving its own people by insisting on this hopeless action.
The KMT's measures have been so clumsy that China not only got the United States to embrace the third no, it also moved further to pressure Clinton to use the phrase "peaceful reunification" about cross-strait issues, replacing the previous formulation of "peaceful resolution." In the past, independence could also be a possible choice, because it met the requirement of peaceful resolution, that is, without appealing to the use of force. But now, according to the meeting's aftermath, reunification has become a must.
The KMT considers itself wise enough in international politics to say one thing and do another, but this secret has been decoded by China and it knifed the KMT in the throat by following the KMT's official support for reunification and success fully asking the United States to endorse it. With this endorsement, the KMT dare not protest to its strongest friend, so Taiwan is doomed to suffer for it. Many times when foreign visitors agreed that we really are a new and independent country, the KMT's answer was "No, no, we are not. We are a part of China." How awful and ridiculous.
What do you think the Clinton-Jiang meeting means to Taiwan?
The stabilized and balanced situation based on the Taiwan Relations Act has been lost, because the United States has become more inclined to the China side.
What does the TAIP have to say about cross-strait relations?
In our foreign policy we insist that we should not talk with China as long it continues to blackmail Taiwan by military force, as long as it continues to threaten to annex Taiwan by military force. What use is it for Taiwan to talk with China under such circumstances? But we could detour to let the United States and Japan, and even the member states of the UN bring international pressure on China.
Is this possible?
Of course it is. If only we applied to return to the UN in the name of Taiwan, we could turn the international situation around. For the past three or four decades, the United States never knew that Taiwan wanted to be an independent country. Why? Because the KMT was afraid of making it clear. Never did our government express such a wish. Every time it touched the topic, it only said that it was a part of China. If it kept saying so, what could others do to help? But if we applied to return to the UN in the name of Taiwan, that would be a totally different story, because that would make it clear what we really want.
It's unlikely to happen, but at least we could make our position known. The changes in the world, together with our own achievements in recent decades, make us qualified to become a new country. So why can't we? Because we still go under the name of the ROC, which was created in 1912 and was overthrown and expelled to Taiwan by the PRC. We still carry this burden. This means that we are still entangled in the civil war between the Communists and the Nationalists, from which we have been trying to break away. Today we are a completely new country and we must let the world know it.
Why did the meeting cause huge adverse reactions in Taiwan?
That was to be expected. The most important thing for Taiwan is independence, which will not be possible without the United States helping us maintain security. It is this reliance that made many people feel surprised if not shocked to find out suddenly that the United States had moved closer to China. If only the KMT regime had the guts to defy US and PRC pressure and say what it really wants! This is the only way to rebalance the situation.
Are the three noes a good wake-up call for Taiwan?
Yes. It reminds people to never buy KMT propaganda--and now the ruling party is evading responsibility by saying there's no need to worry about the three noes. The funny thing is that the United States is repeating the same thing, saying that it is only restating what the KMT has been claiming. Neither is telling the truth.
The truth of the matter is that the three noes had never before been said out loud and clear by any US president. Doesn't this mean anything? This is clearly a change in policy, but the KMT keeps denying it. This is one of the reasons I am dissatisfied with the ruling party: It doesn't have the balls to bear responsibility, and this isn't the first time it has performed in such a lousy way.
Should Taiwan declare independence?
Some people think that we are talking idealistically when we advocate Taiwan independence. In a way, they are right, but politics involves both might and right. We have three goals: to return to the UN under the name of Taiwan, to adopt a new constitution through a public referendum, and to localize our education. This can help build up our identification with Taiwan and with ourselves. If we think of ourselves as Chinese, we have little to do but hold a PRC flag and welcome a Chinese invasion. But if we think of ourselves as Taiwanese and love Taiwan, we can stand tall and resist China, because it will be the right thing to do. Localizing education would enable us to distinguish right from wrong--and being right could create might.
Decades ago, when I was in Japan advocating Taiwan independence, some reporters asked how I could go against the Communists in China and the Nationalists in Taiwan, both of which had strong military power. I said it was a Taiwanese ideal, and that it was right to liberate the Taiwanese from Communist totalitarian rule and Nationalist white-terror rule. What we were struggling for was Taiwanese dignity. Compared with our strength at that time, what have we got today? We have strong support from the people. If you are right, you can win people's support.
Our goal is an independent sovereign state. To build a new country is the way to be truly Taiwanese. Look at the history of Taiwan! We've endured the rule of different nations, the Han Chinese and the Japanese. The Japanese, and even the Chinese mainlanders who retreated to Taiwan in hopes of returning to China, never had Taiwanese interests in mind. There fore, to be Taiwanese, to be ourselves, we have no other choice but to seek Taiwan independence.
But one would reach a different conclusion after viewing the issue from the Chinese historical point of view. From that perspective, the KMT regime is hoping to build the ROC's Second Republic through amending the constitution. They claim that this was achieved by last year's revisions to the constitution. Why did the KMT do it? It wanted to bring the civil war to a real end, but it was still doing this from the viewpoint of one China. On the contrary, we want to build a completely new country so as to restore the dignity of all Taiwanese.