Freedom, the Natural Enemy of Taiwan Independence

Freedom, the Natural Enemy of Taiwan Independence
China Post Editorial
by Bevin Chu
February 18, 2009

"Free trade is not based on utility but on justice.”
-- Edmund Burke

Freedom is the natural ally of Chinese reunification. Republic of China citizens, 23 million of whom live on Taiwan, and 1.3 billion of whom live on the mainland, under PRC control, must be allowed to exercise their freedom. If they are, if they are allowed to freely choose whom to do business with, whom to socialize with, whom to marry, and whom to bear children with, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait will probably be reunified over time. Advocates of Taiwan independence know this and fear this. That is why Taiwan independence is the natural enemy of freedom.

Six labor and business organizations on Taiwan recently asked the ruling KMT to sign a "Comprehensive Cross-Strait Economic and Trade Agreement" (CECA) with Beijing, as soon as possible. National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi and Minister of Economic Affairs Ying Chi-ming responded positively to their suggestion.

DPP Chairman Tsai Ing-wen, on the other hand, immediately slammed the door shut on any such suggestion, and characterized the agreement as "inadvisable." Why? Why did the DPP dismiss a desperately needed, highly beneficial free trade agreement out of hand?

Because the DPP is terrified that the untrammeled exercise of freedom by Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, including economic freedom, social freedom, and political freedom, will gradually and inexorably lead to cross-Strait economic reintegration, cross-Strait social reintegration, and god forbid, cross-Strait political reintegration.

That is why "Mr. Democracy" Lee Teng-hui imposed, via an authoritarian, White Terror style martial law edict, his "policy" of "Be Patient, Avoid Haste," effectively placing 23 million citizens under "house arrest." Lee was determined to prevent them from trading with, socializing with, marrying, and bearing children with 1.3 billion compatriots on the mainland. After all, if they did, they would no longer be "Taiwanese, not Chinese."

That is why Chen Shui-bian extended Lee's unconstitutional and illiberal imperial edict for eight more years. That is why during its eight year reign, the ruling DPP regime discriminated even more cruelly and unfairly against mainland Chinese spouses than it did against Southeast Asian spouses.

Advocates of Taiwan independence posture as champions of freedom. They assure Western sympathizers that the reason they demand Taiwan independence is they cherish freedom and are convinced they cannot be free within a reunified China.

But actions speak louder than words. As we have seen by their cavalier suppression of freedom, they are lying, not merely to Western sympathizers, not merely to the Chinese people on Taiwan, but even to themselves. Their actions make a cruel mockery of their words. No, love of freedom is not why advocates of Taiwan independence oppose Chinese reunification, and they know it.

We know it too. We know it because when asked whether they would be willing to reunify with mainland China, on the precondition that mainland China was as free as Taiwan, advocates of Taiwan independence hem and haw, then offer further pretexts to reject reunification with the mainland.

Advocates of Taiwan independence are loath to admit that the real reason they refuse to reunify with the mainland, is they have decided to establish their own "Taiwanese, not Chinese" tribal identity. They have decided to establish their own "Taiwanese, not Chinese" nation state. Their mainland compatriots, their poor relatives, having been judged hopelessly backward, embarrassingly gauche, not to mention congenitally inferior, are "personae non grata," and not invited to the party.

Never mind that if not for the rivers of blood shed by these poor relatives, these same advocates of Taiwan independence would still be subjects of the Japanese Empire. Never mind that the Taiwan region's economic miracle was financed with the gold reserves of the Chinese nation as a whole, most of which belonged to these poor relatives.

Force, naked government force, has been the natural ally of Taiwan independence. A half century of naked Japanese force separated Chinese on Taiwan from their compatriots on the mainland. The Chinese Civil War, a tragic regional manifestation of the global Cold War, extended this half century of forced separation to a full century.

This artificially imposed, century-long separation of the Chinese people paved the way for Taiwan independence. It allowed advocates of Taiwan independence to indoctrinate the Chinese people on Taiwan with their artificially-concocted "Taiwanese, not Chinese" ethnic and political consciousness, via top down, government imposed "educational reform."

An end to 50 years of Japanese colonial oppression, 50 years of Cold War paranoia, and 20 years of Taiwan independence "de-Sinicization," has finally left the Chinese people on Taiwan free. This freedom now threatens the Taiwan independence movement's nation-building efforts.

Freedom is the natural enemy of Taiwan independence. Taiwan independence is the natural enemy of freedom. Advocates of Taiwan independence turned freedom and Taiwan independence into natural enemies by making the wrong choice, by choosing Taiwan independence over freedom.

It is now up to the rest of us to make the right choice, by choosing freedom over Taiwan independence. We must choose freedom, not merely for 23 million Chinese on Taiwan, but for 1.3 billion of our fellow countrymen on the Chinese mainland.