Taiwan: Sovereignty -- Use It Or Lose It, Plus Ma's "Diplomatic Truce"

President Ma has been talking about a"diplomatic truce" with Beijing, but this has some people worried. I'm one of them. See a recent interview with Francisco Ou, minister of foreign affairs, and an extensive Wall Street Journal interview with Ma from last week.

The Taipei Times paper often leans toward the DPP, so take it with a grain of salt, but this article on a recent forum on Taiwanese security issues does contain a piquant quote that I happen to think is true:

"We can not see and touch sovereignty, but we can exercise sovereignty. If we do not exercise sovereignty, we are gradually losing it."

True dat. The entire Ma approach is beginning to smell of unilateral (on Taiwan's side) concessions, doing all sorts of things to make Beijing happy. Oh, say supporters, but why anger Beijing unnecessarily? Of course there is no call to do that. But sometimes in standing up for one's own self-government and sovereignty, you will inevitably offend someone trying to take those things away from you. But are you to offer up your sovereignty piece by piece to make the other side happy? This kind of "harmony" (*snort of derision*) seems a lot like subordination.

In all honesty, Ma's approach is beginning to bother me. It's starting to look like he's going to Beijing, hat in hand, and asking for goodwill in full Oliver Twist fashion, "Please, sir, I want some more." Now, Ma is young and handsome and eloquent (he says all the right, nice-sounding things) and all that, but take all that away, and I feel like there's an emptiness at the core. Besides, talk is cheap.

Add too a comment by DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen:

“Taiwan’s isolation internationally is a result of China’s oppression. Ma, as the nation’s leader, should find a way to safeguard Taiwan’s international status and highlight the unreasonableness of China’s suppression,” Tsai said in a speech delivered at a forum on “Taiwan’s Security Policy under the New Administration” hosted by the Institute for Taiwan Defense and Strategic Studies. “But instead, the new government is trying to negotiate with the country’s persecutor and to offer: ‘I won’t struggle. Don’t hit me,’” she said, referring to the modus vivendi approach put forth by Ma for dealing with China.