Fetal Position Diplomacy

Passivity is fatal to us. Our goal is to make the enemy passive.
- Mao Tse-Tung

Looks like Taiwan's Chinese Nationalist Party president Ma Ying-jeou's year-old diplomatic "truce" with China is breaking down.  It was always an unstable affair, based as it was upon narrow Sinocentrism.  The two "interpretations" or "regions" of China will be better off if they both agree not to poach each others' diplomatic allies away from each other, Ma argued.  Both "sides of the Strait" will save heaps of money by not engaging in dollar diplomacy.  It'll be Win-Win.

Perhaps he should have instead asked himself, "But is it Win-Win-WIN?"  Let's grant that Taiwan wins.  And that China wins.  But do Taiwan's diplomatic allies ALSO benefit from an arrangement which (quite frankly) brings them less dough while perpetually denying them the freedom to choose which "China" they can maintain diplomatic relations with?

Pretty damn arrogant, really.  We, Chinese, WE will decide amongst ourselves which incarnation of China you foreign governments will be permitted to deal with.  Whether you like it, or not.

Turns out, some of them don't:

Like Nicaragua, Panama is chomping at the bit to switch diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.

Fortunately, Joe Hung (Taiwan's very own Fifth Columnist . . . columnist) has a splendid solution:  Curl up and die.

Taipei and Beijing are tacitly agreed that they won't vie against each other to win diplomatic allies.

Any diplomatic sally President Ma makes will have adverse effect[s] on relations between Taipei and Beijing.  China certainly does not want Ma to show the flag around in a very quick succession.

Ma has to remember Beijing's patience will wear thin if he continues to make state visits to several of the 23 states with which Taiwan still maintains diplomatic ties.

And thus did Mao Tse-Tung achieve his goal.

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Postscript:  Hung sneers at the "irrationality" of supporters of Taiwanese independence AND run-of-the-mill Republic of China sovereigntists:

. . . it's simply an expression of Taiwan's collective thymos [spiritedness, or desire for recognition] to cheer for President Ma's foreign ventures like those of his predecessor Chen Shui-bian.

Thymos drives people to anger when their worth is not recognized by others.  President Chen made most of the people thymotic.  They wanted their country recognized throughout the world either as the Republic of China or Taiwan.

Spiritedness?  Who needs THAT?

Apathy, spiritlessness, numbness . . . passivity.  That's the rotgut of choice for the purveyors of sell-out and surrender !

Ironically though, we find that Hung drinks from the same thymos bottle as the rest of 'em.  Because the old boy sure got a mite tetchy after Mr. Ma's worth was snubbed by Nicaragua:

Of course, Ma was right in refusing to meet with Ortega.  He couldn't and shouldn't demean himself by begging for a meeting.

[...]

Even if Ortega . . . apologized, Ma shouldn't change his mind and meet him in Managua.

Such a snub as Ortega handed to Ma cannot be tolerated.

Just to put this in perspective:  Daniel Ortega postpones a meeting with Ma for 4 or 5 hours, and Hung calls that intolerable.  Absolutely unforgivable. 

Meanwhile, China aims 1,500 missiles at Taiwan, and where's Hung?  Down on all fours, licking Hu Jintao's boots.

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UPDATE (Jul 3/09):  One writer believes Taiwan's diplomacy is on the verge of collapse.

The [two visits Taiwan's president has made to Central America in the past month] have nothing to do with long-term friendship, they are salvage missions to try and fix the damage Ma's attitude has done to Taiwan's relations with its diplomatic partners.

We'll certainly see.

Comments

[Taiwan Echo]

Nice catch, man ... but you made me waste my time on Hung's articles .... :( :( :(

(j/k)

[The Foreigner]

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Sometimes I feel it's a bit mean to beat up on the China Post & Hung, et al. But I always assume that since these kinds of arguments are showing up in the Post, then they're showing up in the Chinese language media as well.

And its those arguments themselves that need to be refuted. No matter where they show up.