FAPA Urges U.S. Government To Protest China’s Continued Restriction Of Taiwan’s International Space

President Ma’s ‘diplomatic truce’ not working

Today, the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) – a Washington-based Taiwanese-American grassroots advocacy organization – expressed its concern about two recent events showing that China is still attempting to deny Taiwan international space.

The two events were the Chinese reaction to President Ma’s trip to Rome to attend the inauguration of Pope Francis, and the decision by the Indonesian government in Jakarta to deny a delegation from Taiwan access to an international defense conference after objections from China.

In the case of Taiwan President Ma’s trip to Rome, the Chinese Foreign Ministry criticized both Taiwan and the Vatican over the visit.  In a press briefing on March 18^th 2013, PRC spokeswoman Hua Chun-ying urged the Vatican to “dissolve ties with Taiwan.”

In the case of the Jakarta International Defense Dialogue (JIDD), a four-person Taiwanese delegation was forced to withdraw from attending the conference, when the Indonesian authorities disinvited the delegation after China raised objections to Taiwan’s presence at the conference.

In response to the developments, FAPA President Mark Kao states: “China’s continued efforts to undermine Taiwan’s presence at such international events do clearly show that President Ma’s “diplomatic truce” is not working. Worse, it shows that promises of a “rapprochement” across the Taiwan Strait is leading to diminished international space for Taiwan.”

Dr. Kao adds: “China’s moves are also in clear contradiction to stated US policy, which says that the US supports meaningful participation by Taiwan in international organizations.  We call on the US government to protest China’s attempts to restrict Taiwan’s international space.  Taiwan should be a full and equal member in the international family of nations.”

台灣人公共事務會呼籲美國政府對於中國一再打壓台灣國際空間一事表達抗議

馬總統的「外交休兵」政策無效

台灣人公共事務會今天針對近來中國打壓台灣國際空間的兩個事件表示憂心。

其一事件為中國對於馬英九總統前往教廷參加教宗方濟各就任式一事的反應；另則為印尼政府在遭受中國抗議施壓後，拒絕讓台灣代表團參加「雅加達國際防務對話」一事。

中國外交部針對馬總統訪教廷一事抨擊台灣及教廷雙方。在三月十八日的一場記者會中，中國外交部發言人華春瑩呼籲教廷「必須終止對台關係」。

在「雅加達國際防務對話」一事中，在中國抗議台灣的出席後，印尼政府隨即取消對台灣的邀請，並要求出席的四位台灣代表離席。

台灣人公共事務會會長高龍榮博士表示：「中國對台灣的國際空間一再打壓，顯示馬總統的『外交休兵』政策並未奏效。這些跡象顯示兩岸友好的保證反而將導致台灣的國際空間更形壓縮。」

高博士並說道：「中國的行為顯然也與美國支持台灣有意義參與國際組織的政策背道而馳。我們呼籲美國政府對於中國打壓台灣國際空間一事表達抗議。台灣應該是國際社會中的一分子。」

Photo Credit: NCinDC (Flickr)

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Taiwanese-Americans Disturbed By President Ma’s Shift On “China” Language

A throwback to the times of the Civil War

Taiwanese-Americans today expressed surprise and indignation about recent press reports from Taiwan indicating that President Ma Ying-jeou now wants the people of the island nation to refer to China as “the mainland” or the “other side.”

According to the reports, President Ma had said in a February 7th meeting with leading government and legislative officials that China should not be referred to by its official name, but instead be called “the mainland” or simply “the other side.”

The move is apparently part of the Ma government’s attempts to define the so-called “Republic of China” (ROC) as the “real” China, and “the mainland” as part of this ROC.

FAPA President Yang stated in response: “To me this is a throwback to the bad old days of the Civil War between the Chinese Nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists of Mao Zedong.”  He added: “The Ma government should realize that the ‘ROC’ has lost its legitimacy more than thirty years ago, and that the new reality is that the PRC represents China, and that Taiwan is a free and democratic country separate from China.”

President Yang continued: “In order for Taiwan to preserve its democracy it needs to strengthen its ties with the international community.  And everyone in the international community refers to Taiwan as ‘Taiwan.’  The time for anachronistic ‘ROC’ fictions is over.”

The statement by President Ma comes at the heels of efforts by both the PRC and the Ma administration to lock Taiwan into the “1992 consensus”, a fiction conjured up by former Ma government official Su Chi, who said that in 1992 the two sides agreed to “One China” but that each side could have its own interpretation.

The problem with this “consensus” is that the PRC never agreed that each side could have its own interpretation, while former President Lee Teng-hui – who served as President from 1988 through 2000 – has stated that such a consensus never existed in the first place.

President Yang concluded: “It would behoove the Ma government to come back to reality, and accept that China is China, and Taiwan is Taiwan.  Playing his semantic games is detrimental to Taiwan and its future as a free and democratic nation.”

Photo Credit: 張永泰（Wikipedia Commons）

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National Archives Shatters Beijing’s And KMT’s Claims

In a letter to FAPA dated June 5, Michael Kurtz, the Assistant Archivist for Records Services at the United States National Archives confirmed that the 1943 Cairo Declaration is neither a treaty nor an executive agreement, but merely a “communiqué.” This marks the first time the United States government officially goes on record elaborating on the lack of legal binding power of the Cairo Declaration, and thus voids the basis of both the Chinese Nationalist KMT party’s and Beijing’s mythic “One China Principle” claims.

Mr. Kurtz writes: “The National Archives and Records Administration has not filed this declaration under treaties. […] As you state, the declaration was a “communiqué”, and it does not have treaty series (TS) or executive agreement series (EAS) number.”

Over the past half century, the Cairo Declaration has been used by both the Communist government and the KMT as one of the key historic documents to bolster their “One China” claims.  The KMT has long cited the Cairo Declaration as the legal basis for ROC’s claim on Taiwan. Interestingly enough, the Chinese Communist government also cites the Cairo Declaration to augment its claim that Taiwan is part of China. Former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, current Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and Premiere Wen Jiabao have in various public occasions invoked the Cairo Declaration to establish that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China.

FAPA President CT Lee states: “The 1943 Cairo Declaration is a document that wrapped up a meeting between Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Chiang Kai-shek. It merely is a moment in time – a declaration of intention about the world’s affairs among the three leaders. Although important at the time, it does not have any legal binding power almost 65 years later enabling either the KMT or the PRC to derive territorial claims from. The letter from the Archives codifies this fact that is already familiar to international legal scholars and Taiwan’s DPP government. The 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty officially brought World War II to an end and supersedes all previous agreements. It is time that the Chinese Nationalist Party and the Communist Chinese government cease this political game of rhetoric.”

美國國家檔案室打破北京與國民黨的一中迷思

美國國家檔案室在一封6月5日致FAPA的信函裡表示，1943年的開羅宣言不是國際條約，也不是美國與他國簽署的行政協定，充其量只是一份公報聲明。這可說是美國政府首次公開承認開羅宣言不具有任何法律效力，粉碎了北京政權與中國國民黨多年來引用開羅宣言為佐證的一中迷思。

國家檔案室的柯爾茲先生在信函裡解釋，根據國家檔案室的規定，所有的國際條約、行政協定、或是一般條約與其他協定等文件均有其專屬的特定號碼，由國務院一併交由檔案室保管。開羅宣言並不符合上述性質，因為它不是條約，也不是行政協定。「誠如您在信中所提到的，開羅宣言僅是一份公報聲明」，柯爾茲先生表示。

近半世紀以來，開羅宣言對於中國國民黨與中國共產黨的一中迷思，佔有極重要的歷史與法理地位。中國國民黨引用開羅宣言，證明日本將台灣歸還中華民國；有趣的是，在同時，中國共產黨也是引用開羅宣言來佐證台灣是中國的一部份。從過去的江澤民、到今日的中國外長李肇星、總理温家寶等，中國政府與學界均在不同的國內外公開場合一再引用開羅宣言來證明台灣是中國領土不可分割的一部份。

FAPA會長李青泰表示：「 開羅宣言最多僅是代表美、中、英三國領袖對於當時國際局勢的片面聲明，在當時也許有特別涵義，但是宣言本身並不具任何法律效力，更遑論可以用來佐證中國領土涵蓋台灣的法律根據，不管是中華民國或是中華人民共和國。美國檔案室今天公開證明這項一般國際法學者與民進黨政府早已確認的史實。」1951年的舊金山合約是歸結二次世界大戰的戰後合約，依照國際法原則，理應取代之前制訂的法律條文，何況是沒有法律效力的公報宣言。FAPA呼籲中國國民黨與中國共產黨不要再為了一己之私的政治目的，刻意誤導與扭曲史實。

Photo Credit: EdBrown05 (Wikimedia Commons)

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