The National Interest
Date: June 16, 2020
By: Fang-Yu Chen Austin Wang Charles K.S. Wu Yao-Yuan Yeh
Taiwan’s citizens are acutely aware that moving toward independence swiftly might invite a Chinese military invasion. As a result, even when support for the independence movement is highest in history, they veer towards maintaining the status quo forever.
Recently, Taiwan has been under the spotlight in international media for three main events: passing a same-sex marriage act in May 2019, Tsai winning a reelection in January 2020, and the outstanding performance in fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The statehood of Taiwan, however, is not as clear as the above achievements. While numerous international media outlets tend to Taiwan as a self-ruled island-state, others often avoid using the term “country” to describe Taiwan due to the chagrin of Beijing. The duality of reporting exemplifies the dilemma of Taiwan’s statehood.
While journalists worldwide often associate the sitting president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-Wen, with political stances that advocate for Taiwan’s de jure independence, that tendency is problematic. For starters, the goal of the Tsai administration has always been maintaining the status quo across the Strait. Second, Tsai’s pro-status-quo attitudes are clear when compared to other political parties and political groups in Taiwan that take on more extreme positions such as holding an independence referendum immediately, or supporting and promoting Beijing’s unification and one-country-two-system rhetoric in Taiwan.
It is imprecise to think of Tsai and the Democratic Progressive Party DPP as “pro-status quo.” A pro-status quo president should be adamant in defending the name of the Republic of China. The former president, Ma Ying-jeou, is seen as the most representative figure for the pro-status quo stance. Elected as the president in 2008, Ma was seen on record correcting a journalist that “He is not the president of Taiwan, but the president of the Republic of China.” Following the same line of logic, Ma blasted Tsai recently by criticizing that “our country name is Republic of China, not Republic of China Taiwan!” [FULL STORY]
