Wake Up from Fabricated U.S. Illusion
United Daily News Editorial, August 20, 2021
The United States withdrawal has resulted in the sudden change in the situation in Afghanistan, triggering many to discuss the possibility of “Afghanistan today, Taiwan tomorrow.” President Tsai Ing-wen remained silent for several days before speaking at a central standing committee meeting of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DDP), claiming that Taiwan’s only option is to self-protect, become stronger, more united, and not rely solely on the protection of others. However, in the meantime, the DDP spokesperson condemned the opposition party for advocating the theory that the United States will abandon Taiwan. From the DDP’s current attitude, we cannot see any sign of introspection or intention to unite the country.
With Afghanistan’s government falling into the hands of Taliban once again, the whole world has been heavily impacted psychologically. President Joe Biden’s reputation also suffered a great setback as a result. In Taiwan, the people are particularly impressed by this change of situation. In recent years, the Tsai administration has become a pawn for Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden on the “anti-China” front. During the anti-extradition period in Hong Kong, President Tsai was able to operate a “sense of national doom” and succeed in her reelection smoothly. The Tsai administration has always built an impression that Taiwan has the strong support and protection of the United States, which is the biggest backing for those who are anti-China. Yet, as people watch United States abandon Afghanistan so hastily, it is inevitable that they worry whether Taiwan might suffer the same fate.
Nevertheless, it is actually questionable whether or not “Afghanistan today, Taiwan tomorrow” is an appropriate analogy. The reason being that Afghanistan’s situation and subjectivity are completely different than that of Taiwan. Taliban and China cannot be compared either. The only common factor in this analogy is the United States. As far as Taiwan is concerned, from the recent drastic change of situation in Afghanistan, it appears that the United States can easily abandon its allies for its own interests. Especially after President Biden’s cold-blooded statements to justify his misjudgment, anyone should realize that the protection of allies is as thin as paper and can be nullified anytime. The fact that President Tsai says that Taiwan’s only option is to protect oneself is most probably because she has no better words to defend the actions by the United States or to reassure the Taiwanese people.
Another question worth discussing is: in the five years that President Tsai has been in power, has she really been striving for a stronger, more united and protected Taiwan? The facts show that this might not be the case. As we can see, the majority of the time, the Tsai administration has been creating an illusion that the United States greatly supports Taiwan. The government does so by promoting news on how many weapons the United States has sold to Taiwan; the Taiwan-friendly legislation that the Congress has passed; the amount of vaccines the United States has given to Taiwan; the American officials that visited Taiwan; and the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) negotiation that has restarted after five years of suspension. On the surface it may seem that the bilateral relationship of the United States and Taiwan has improved, in reality there is not much substantial change. Many times, these news items are simply to satisfy Taiwan’s lowly self-view.
What is worrisome is that throughout this process, the Tsai administration has turned Taiwan into a chess piece for the United States to use for its strategic layout against mainland China. As a result, Taiwan’s original cross-strait strategic policy that had a lot more autonomy and flexibility is now substituted with an ambiguous subjectivity with a prominent provocative role. This also explains why in recent years Taiwan’s relationship with the mainland has become more and more difficult.
After President Tsai took office in 2016, she declared that Taiwan should rid itself of excessive dependence on the mainland, which is actually the right direction towards which Taiwan should move. However, in practice, she regards China as the biggest enemy and forces Taiwan into a role that constantly pleases and relies on the United States. Taiwan’s subjectivity and flexibility have consequently been weakened. Throughout this process, Taiwan has not grown stronger. Instead, many actions of the Tsai administration have reached the point of being servile to the United States: for example, unilaterally opening the import of pork with ractopamine despite it being against the interests and wishes of the people; making the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) set up factories in the United States in order to please the Trump administration, which is the equivalent of using enterprises as a form of diplomatic tool; as well as letting the people receive Medigen vaccines which have not been tested in Phase III clinical trials in order to cater to the American National Institutes of Health. If the Tsai administration is willing to make these decisions that are the opposite of reasoning, freedom, and science, there are most likely more rigged operations where they sacrifice national interests for their own interests.
Rather than saying that “Afghanistan today, Taiwan tomorrow” is a prophecy, it is perhaps more a political warning to remind people not to believe in the promise that the United States will “help Taiwan” or “defend Taiwan”. It is true that the United States is a democracy, but ultimately it cares more about protecting its own national interests and would certainly not allow its people to shed blood for no reason. No matter how beautiful the picture that the Tsai administration tries to paint of the United States, it is important to remember that the reality is always cold and cruel.