Violent altercations at a concert held at National Taiwan University this past weekend are a powerful reminder that China’s United Front Work activities are intensifying and threaten Taiwan’s way of life
Organized by the Taipei City and Shanghai municipal governments under a cross-Strait cultural agreement reached in 2010, a propagandistic music festival in Taipei descended into violence on Sunday after protesters disrupted it, prompting a reaction by pro-unification elements.
The event, “Sing! China: Shanghai-Taipei Music Festival,” (「2017《中國新歌聲》上海‧台北音樂節」) was sponsored by various Shanghai-based cultural groups, some which critics say may be involved in China’s United Front Work (UFW) efforts (the Taipei City Government page listing the organizers and sponsors of the event has since gone down). Organizers and sponsors include the Shanghai City Cross-Strait Cultural Exchange Promotion Association, the Shanghai Cultural Association, Shanghai Canxing Trading Co., Ltd., and Shanghai Voice of Dream Media Co.
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Taiwan remains shunned by the UN, which insists on de jure sovereignty for membership and continues to operate under a “One China” policy
Taiwan and its allies at the United Nations will once again make the case during the UN General Assembly for the meaningful participation of Taiwan within the world body and its specialized agencies.
The world’s twenty-second largest economy with a population of 23.5 million people, Taiwan is also a spectacular—and rare—example of what a people can accomplish when they peacefully transition from authoritarianism to a liberal-democratic way of life. Over the thirty years since the lifting of martial law, Taiwan has deepened its democracy and now occupies an enviable position as one of the safest, freest and most responsible nations, which the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators project makes amply clear.
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More than anything, Beijing is using the Lee case to send a warning to Taiwan and the rest of the world that proposing political alternatives for China, or even criticizing the CCP, can be costly. Whoever or wherever you are
The “trial” of Taiwanese democracy activist Lee Ming-che, who went missing in China on March 19, opened yesterday at the Yueyang City Intermediate People’s Court, with Lee admitting to various purported crimes against China and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Lee, 42, pleaded guilty to “subverting the state” by “spreading articles that maliciously attacked the Communist Party of China, China’s existing system and China’s government” by calling for a multiparty political system. After admitting his “wrongs,” the rights activist said he had been mislead by vicious Taiwanese (and Western) media about China and that his eyes had been opened. Now seeing the real virtues of China, Lee said that after he is released from prison (at this writing no sentence has been given) and allowed to return to Taiwan he would work towards promoting unification.
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New challenges, opportunities and uncertainty in an extremely complex environment
The 2016 elections of Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Taiwan, and of Donald J. Trump in the United States have injected new uncertainty in the security environment across the Taiwan Strait. Meanwhile, an increasingly self-assured Beijing, aided by political developments in China encouraging assertiveness, is creating new tensions in the region, which will create new challenges for Washington and Taipei.
My analysis, published today on the Brookings Institution's Taiwan-U.S. Quarterly Analysis, continues here.
