Tsai Stands with Zelenskyy, But He is Busy Seeking Xi
United Daily News Editorial, March 24, 2022
In the video conference with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, President Tsai Ing-wen told Mr. Abe that Taiwan has joined the economic sanctions against Russia and started humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, and Taiwan would firmly stand with Ukraine.
In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was planning to call Chinese President Xi Jinping and ask him to play a major role in ending the war between Russia and Ukraine. Despite the spokesperson of the mainland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs mumbling about it, Mr. Zelenskyy’s spokesperson confirmed that the phone call was expected to happen soon.
Certainly, the above two incidents didn’t cancel each other out. However, there is obviously some truth that was unintentionally overlooked or, more likely, intentionally left out. While President Tsai expressed her wish to stand firmly with President Zelenskyy, he was urgently seeking to communicate with Mr. Xi.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, Taiwan not only joined the American-led sanctions against Russia, but also launched humanitarian fundraising campaign of $1 billion New Taiwan dollars (about $3.47 million U.S. dollars). President Tsai expressed sympathy towards Ukrainians. Although the Tsai administration has muted about the analogy of “Today’s Ukraine is Tomorrow’s Taiwan”, the wing friendly to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has never stopped comparing Russian President Vladimir Putin with Xi.
Therefore, when Ukraine Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov named Asus to halt its operations in Russia, the initial low-key response from Asus received much criticism within Taiwan and some criticism even suggested boycott. Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua used “inconvenient to comment” to show the distancing and condoning attitude of the Tsai administration.
In fact, it is unknown to many people in Taiwan as to how much Asus technology was used by Russia to attack Ukraine. But the people of Taiwan soon realized that the People’s Liberation Army has long used Ukrainian military technology and weapons to intimidate Taiwan, including the aircraft carrier that deters the United States from coming to Taiwan’s rescue in times of armed conflicts in the Taiwan Strait.
Therefore, when opposition legislators suggested Taiwan should ask Ukraine not to sell China weapons while Taiwan assisting Ukraine. Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu replied awkwardly: “What shall I say?” When Mr. Zelenskyy was busy in giving nation-saving moral speeches to many countries, Kuomintang (KMT) legislators also asked the Tsai administration to extend invitation to Mr. Zelenskyy. It is ironic that DPP legislators said the invitation would give Mr. Zelenskyy a hard time.
In comparison with other central and eastern European countries, Ukraine is not friendly with Taiwan. At least since during the era of President Lee Teng-hui from 1988 to 2000, Ukraine has repeatedly rejected Taiwan’s offer to open representative office in Kiev. Until now there is no official communication channel between Taiwan and Ukraine. Even when sending humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, Taiwan has to go through a third party or international non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Will Taiwan’s humanitarian assistance effort change Ukraine attitude towards Taiwan? It is unfortunately dependent on the international power structure change after the Russia-Ukraine war. There is nothing wrong with humanitarian assistance. But it is dishonest to deliberately neglect the fact that Ukraine’s ties with Communist China are very strong. Otherwise, the people of Taiwan won’t be surprised and disappointed by Mr. Zelenskyy’s hotline with Xi after President Tsai promised to stand with the Ukrainian leader.
Is it “returning good for evil” that President Tsai is supporting Ukraine while Ukraine is selling arms to China? If Tsai has robbed President Chiang Ching-kuo’s legacy of countering China to protect Taiwan, then why does it matter if she continues to rob President Chiang Kai-shek’s legacy of “returning good for evil”?