Focus on humanitarian assistance, soft power

Rowan Callick
The recent crushing victory of charismatic Ma Ying-jeou in the presidential election in Taiwan is highly important for the Pacific region.

It changes -- not totally, but significantlyŃthe relationship between the dynamic island state of 23 million people and its vast neighbour the People’s Republic of China.

And it is the nature of their rivalry that has in recent years injected controversy, funding, passion, and sometimes crisis into diplomatic issues within the islands states.

Taiwan was ruled very loosely by the Qing dynasty in China, which in 1895, following a war, conceded the island to the victor, Japan. Unlike some other areas of its growing empire, Japan injected considerable resources into its government of Taiwan.

After Japan’s defeat in 1945, control reverted to the Kuomintang (Nationalist, or KMT) government then ruling China, under Chiang Kai-shek. This was a period many Taiwanese recall with anger, as one of cruelty and exploitation.

Then in 1949, Chiang lost the civil war in China to the communists led by Mao Zedong, and he fled with the remnants of his government and army to Taiwan.

This is a sub-tropical island whose native people have since been demonstrated by DNA testing, language analysis and anthropological research, to be strongly linkedŃprobably as the ultimate ancestorsŃof many Pacific islands peoples, especially the widespread Austronesians.

Many of Taiwan’s Aborigines continue to live on their tribal lands, in the central mountains and on the dramatic east coast that plunges into the Pacific ocean.

After “Generalissimo” Chiang died, his son Chiang Ching-kuo became president. He relaxed the KMT’s long-term military, one-party rule, and his successor Lee Teng-hui became in 1996 the first popularly elected leader in any part of the Chinese world.

At the following election, in 2000, the KMT was defeated by the leader of the Democrat Progressive Party (DPP), Chen Shui-bian, and power changed hands peacefully for the first time.

He was re-elected in 2004. But the KMT retained control of the Legislative Yuan, the parliament, and so Chen’s hands were tied in implementing policy.

Beijing viewed Chen as dangerously inclined towards formally declaring Taiwan independent.

The country has its own army, constitution, currency and parliament, but China has succeeded in limiting its international space. It regards Taiwan as part of China and threatens to invadeŃit has hundreds of missiles constantly ranged against the island to underline this threatŃif it should attempt to upgrade its effective independence into formal independence.

In January, the KMT won a sweeping landslide at the parliamentary elections, and then Ma Ying-jeou, the party’s leader, scored 58 percent of the voteŃwith 76 percent of the 17 million electors turning out at the polling boothsŃin defeating DPP candidate Frank Hsieh for president.

Ma is 57, being born in Hong Kong to parents who had fled mainland China after the communist victory and were on their way to Taiwan. At the election, he overcame criticism for being a “mainlander”Ńsomeone who wasn’t born in Taiwan.

There has been a big swing in recent years towards people on the island viewing their identity primarily as Taiwanese rather than as ChineseŃand most of them also favour the “status quo” in relations with ChinaŃretaining their effective independence without declaring it formally and risk angering China into invading.
Ma was first educated in Taiwan, then attained a law degree at Harvard University in the USA. He worked briefly on Wall Street in New York as a lawyer, then returned to Taiwan, where he taught law, worked for the KMT government and party, became a crusading Justice Minister in 1993 who was removed for being too tough on the corruption of fellow party officials.

He became mayor of the capital, Taipei, from 1998-2006, then chairman of the KMT before winning the recent election. He will be formally inaugurated as president on May 20. He is a figure of considerable charm, fluent in Mandarin and English. His wife Christine Chow is a corporate lawyer who will continue to work for a bank after her husband becomes president. They have two daughters studying in the US.

He was elected because voters were fed up with stories of corruption surrounding Chen’s administration, his edgy party political manoeuvrings and his economic failures.

He was not elected to concede Taiwan back into Beijing’s control as another Chinese provinceŃor even under the “one country, two systems” formula that applies to Hong Kong.

The 70 percent of Taiwanese who consistently say in polls that they back the status quo wish for closer economic but not political links with China. About a million Taiwanese are working and living in China, where they have invested about US$100 billionŃfar more than any other country.

Ma’s first steps will include negotiating direct links with China to allow airlines and shipping lines, and postal services to take people and cargoes directly between the countries. To-date, they have had to travel via a “third party” such as Hong Kong or Macao.

Ma’s vice-president, Vincent Siew, became on April 12 the most senior Taiwan official to meet a leader of ChinaŃPresident Hu JintaoŃat the Boao Forum on China’s southern Hainan islandŃsince the communists won the civil war in 1949.

The level of tension is gradually subsiding, and it is likely the two countries will reach a form of understanding in which some rivalry will remain over diplomatic recognition but at a lower, less energetic level.

It is probable the sides will throw less money around and will attempt to respect the contemporary standards of the international aid community.

Ma said in an 80-minute press conference in English on the day after his stunning electoral victory: “We’re not in a position to spread dollars wherever we go. We don’t have that much military or financial muscle to flex. But we do have a wealth of experience in developing the economy. I think that is more needed by our friends in the developing world.”

He condemned “dollar diplomacy” and said he would focus instead on “humanitarian assistance” and “soft power” in building Taiwan’s relations with its diplomatic alliesŃof whom there are six in the region: Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. These six comprise a quarter of the entire group of countries that recognise Taiwan. Leaders or senior officials from all, are expected to attend Ma’s inauguration in Taipei on May 20.

Ą Rowan Callick is the China correspondent for The Australian newspaper, and travelled to Taipei to cover the recent Taiwan election.