Taiwan's 23 million people were send an explicit notice Wednesday of the "clear and present" threat posed to our hard-won democratic freedoms by the Chinese Communist Party-ruled People's Republic of China and facilitated by the China-centric right-wing Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) government under President Ma Ying-jeou.
Rumors that Chinese tourists, almost all of which visit Taiwan in packaged tours vetted by the Beijing government, have been boycotting Kaohsiung have been rife since seven DPP mayors led by Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chu invited the Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan and since the Kaohsiung Film Festival decided to feature the Australian documentary film
"Ten Conditions of Love" on exiled Uighur rights activist Rebiya Kadeer this month. It is important to note that the Dalai Lama made no inflammatory statements during his visit to Taiwan and neither the content of "Ten Conditions of Love" or any public or reported statement by Rebiya Kadeer have manifested "propaganda for war" or contained "advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred."
Doubts over the veracity of reports by Kaohsiung hotel operators of a retaliatory boycott by PRC tourists were dispelled this weekend when Taiwan's own Tourism Bureau revealed that 9,500 Chinese visiting Taiwan later this month under the auspices of Beijing-based Pro-Health Company would not visit the south.
Responding to a question by the PRC state-owned China News Service, the TAO spokeswoman confirmed the boycott and its political motivation. "There are some forces in Kaohsiung which have joined together with 'Tibetan independence' and 'Xinjiang independence' splittist forces and manufactured some incidents which impact on core mainland interests and hurt the feelings of mainland compatriots," said Fan, who added that "it is very natural that mainland masses are dissatisfied with these actions" According to a transcript on the TAO website, Fan declared that "stopping the alarm requires someone to hit the button," presumably a demand that the Kaohsiung City government apologize for inviting the Dalai Lama or cancel the KFF showings of "Ten Conditions of Love."
Fan's statement made explicit a trend which has been obvious since the KMT took office last May and implemented a China-tilting policy of KMT-CCP "reconciliation" and cross-strait economic "deregulation."
To put the matter in "economic" terms, Beijing is using its control over the flow of Chinese tourists to force the Taiwan government, at both central and local levels, to act as its "general agent" for the exportation of PRC's draconian restrictions on freedom of speech and expression to Taiwan and impose these CCP - made standards on our own citizens.
The comment by the TAO spokeswoman also exploded months of pollyannaish propaganda by the Ma government that the ECFA "only concerns economics" and will not "impinge on sovereignty" since it constituted an open declaration of Beijing's intent to use commercial interests to dictate the standards of human rights of Taiwan citizens in direct violation of our national sovereignty.
The TAO action demonstrates that Beijing absolutely does not "separate politics from economics" but, on the contrary, fully intends to use any and all market openings or deeper business relationships to intensify political pressure on our society and government. While the DPP and other Taiwan-centric groups have denounced the PRC's move to "use business to pressure politics," the KMT government has so far remained mum, with the exception of a meek complaint by Mainland Affairs Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan that Fan's statement had "hurt the feelings of the Taiwan people." Such a response is woefully inadequate because what Beijing aims to hurt is not our feelings but undermine the most fundamental "core interest" of the Taiwan people, our democratic freedoms.
Indeed, the International Covenant on Civic and Political Rights, which President Ma Ying-jeou signed into Taiwan law earlier this year, commits its signatories, to "respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant," including the right of free expression.
The Taiwan government is therefore legally obligated to defend the right of free expression of our citizens and must no longer bow to Beijing's pressure if it wishes to retain its own political legitimacy.
Indeed, as any police officer knows, caving into blackmail never leads to outpourings of "goodwill" by the blackmailer toward the victim but only paves the road for even more ruthless extortion by exposing the weak will of the victim to resist.
The Ma government must now decide whether it is willing to act as Beijing's official agent or show some backbone and suspend further cross-strait consultations pending a public apology by the PRC authorities.
Source: Taiwan News - Editorials 2009/10/16
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