During a five-day visit which ends today, the chief negotiator on cross-strait relations for the authoritarian People's Republic of China for Taiwan affairs has repeatedly declared that Beijing will "absolutely respect" the expression of different opinions within Taiwan society regarding the cross-strait talks and on whether to welcome his journey.
These pious declarations by Association for Relations Across the Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin, a former director for Taiwan affairs for both the PRC government and the ruling Chinese Communist Party, have been discordant with his own statements that Beijing will not "waver" in its current policy direction on Taiwan due to these "different voices."
The lack of sincerity on the part of the PRC side was confirmed by the declaration by ARATS Vice Chairman Zheng Lizhong that any dialogue with opposition Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen would only be possible on the precondition that she and her party abandoned advocation of "Taiwan independence."
To its shame, Taiwan's ruling right-wing Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) administration under President Ma Ying-jeou has treated Chen, who is by no means in the top echelons of the CCP's power hierarchy, as a virtual imperial envoy and imposed controls on persons, traffic and news coverage reminiscent of its own past authoritarian period and has dismissed complaints of the rampant violation of civic freedoms by declaring, as KMT Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu told angry Taiwan journalists, that "you are simply not used to it."
By coincidence or design, both leaderships of the CCP and the KMT have critical opportunities Friday to show their real character by how they act regarding the expected announcement today of the verdict by a Beijing kangaroo court of prominent Chinese author and democratic reformer Liu Xiaobo on charges of "inciting suberversion of state power."
A former president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center and a past visiting scholar at Columbia University and several other universities outside China, Liu was arrested by the Beijing Public Security Bureau in June 2008 and indicted for December for co-authoring "Charter 08," a declaration calling for political reform, greater human rights, and an end to one-party rule in China that has been signed by hundreds of individuals from all walks of life throughout the country.
How to show sincerity
Liu, who was subjected to a summary trial of less than three hours Wednesday in the Beijing Number One Intermediate People's Court, is expected to be convicted regardless of his "not guilty" plea and sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.
If Chen Yunlin expects people in Taiwan to take seriously his declaration that the PRC side will "absolutely respect" the right of opponents to express their views, he should tell his bosses in Beijing to first show that they will implement this principle at home with respect to their own citizens and immediately release Liu and drop the absurd charges of "inciting subversion of state power" against him.
A similar choice awaits President Ma.
For citizens of Taiwan, the Liu case possesses a poignant irony as his trial comes on the heels of commemorations of the 30th anniversary of the Kaohsiung Incident of December 10, 1979, which marked a comprehensive crackdown by then authoritarian KMT regime on the "Formosa" democratic movement and which led to sedition trials for eight "Formosa" leaders for similarly calling for comprehensive democratic reforms and respect for human rights.
In a further irony, Ma chose December 10, International Human Rights Day, to promulgate implementing rules for two international human rights covenants approved by Taiwan's national legislature in March.
The Liu case thus provides Ma with a chance to show whether he still stands by his previously public commitment to human rights in China, a commitment that appears to have vanished from his discourse since he was inaugurated as president on May 20, 2008.
Moreover, as Tsai herself noted, the issue of human rights in the PRC, including protections for the rights of life and property for Taiwan businesspersons and citizens resident or working in China, has been totally absent from the touted talks between Taipei's Strait Exchange Foundation and the ARATS.
Instead, Ma's KMT government is widely perceived as being only interested in "engaging" with the CCP regime for economic or commercial interests and to secure an unprincipled "reconciliation" through denials of Taiwan's status as an independent democratic state.
If Ma wants to shore up the plunging confidence of Taiwan citizens in his KMT government's capability and resolution to defend Taiwan's fundamental interests, there is no time like the present to show that he, like Tsai, believes that "democracy, freedom and human rights are Taiwan's most precious assets."
We hope that Ma will choose to take Tsai's advice and follow the examples of the U.S. and other democratic nations by calling on Chen Yunlin to urge PRC State Chairman Hu Jintao to immediately release Liu Xiaobo and respect the rights of free expression of both the Chinese and Taiwanese people.
Source: Taiwan News Online - Editorial 2009/12/25
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