By Fang Wei-li and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Add TT as Preferred Source
Beijing’s high-profile celebrations of Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) are a bid to create opportunities for meddling in Taiwan’s elections later this month and promote a historical narrative that rationalizes a Chinese takeover of Taiwan, academics said in Taipei yesterday. Commemorative activities surrounding Sun allow Beijing to set the discourse for “united front” activities ahead of Taiwan’s nine-in-one elections, Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致), an associate professor at the Taipei University of Marine Technology’s Center for General Education, said at a seminar organized by the Chinese Asia-Pacific Elite Exchange Association a day after China held events marking the 126th anniversary of Sun’s birth to great fanfare. Although the memorial events fall short of definitively proving election interference by Beijing, the public must be on guard against Chinese “united front” activities targeting Taiwanese politics, he said.
Academics attend a seminar hosted by the Chinese Asia-Pacific Elite Exchange Association in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
China’s promotion of Sun serves to help Beijing seize control of the historical discourse, that the annexation of Taiwan aligns with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) vision of a grand national rejuvenation, Wu said. Using history, Beijing could paint those who support stronger ties with China as peacekeepers and cast opponents of Taiwan’s annexation as people who undermine national solidarity and peace, he said.
This generalized narrative has the advantage of not being tailored to any specific political figure, he said. The core formula for Beijing’s “united front” tactics is to equate shared history with shared responsibility, and then transform shared responsibility into an obligation for Taiwan to accept annexation by China, Wu said. This argument fails because Taiwan can acknowledge Sun’s historical contribution without consigning Taiwanese to rule by communism, and historical ties with China do not negate Taiwan’s sovereignty, he said. “There is an irony to Beijing’s repeated assertions of the mutual national sympathy between the peoples on both sides of the Taiwan Strait while conducting a relentless campaign of coercion and intimidation against Taiwanese,” Wu said. Taiwan does not need to contest China’s claim of being the legitimate successor of Sun’s legacy, as the nation’s democracy is its own defense, he said. No amount of Sun commemorations can change the fact that Taiwan and China are not subordinate to each other, and that the People’s Republic of China has never ruled Taiwan, he said. Taiwan should insist that only Taiwanese have a right to determine the future of the nation, Wu said. National Taiwan Normal University professor of East Asian studies Fan Shih-ping (范世平) said 260 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) figures had chosen Thursday, the anniversary of Sun’s birth, to call for peace negotiations with Beijing. The timing of the joint statement by former KMT politicians and academics aligned neatly with Beijing’s “united front” activities, he said. Signing a peace agreement as the KMT supporters proposed would mean that Taiwan will stop buying arms from the US and agree with China that the current cross-strait situation is an extension of the Chinese Civil War, Fan said. Agreeing to these terms would be massive wins for Beijing, he said. “No Taiwanese oppose peace, but signing the peace agreement that China hopes for is to swallow a sugarcoated poison pill,” Fan said.