Southeast Asia backs China on
Taiwan By Rodolfo C Severino
(The following is an abridged version
of a speech presented at the Asia-Pacific Security
Forum in Taipei on August 30.)
TAIPEI
- Because I am in Taiwan for the first time, I
would like to take this opportunity to talk about
Taiwan and how Southeast Asians view it. I have
traveled quite extensively in all 10
member-countries of ASEAN (the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations) and lived in six of them.
Because of this, I believe that I have some feel
for how Southeast Asians think about Taiwan.
Basically, two things come to mind when
Southeast Asians think
about Taiwan. The first is
the maintenance of peace in the Taiwan Strait. The
second is the economic opportunities that Taiwan
represents in its relations with Southeast Asia.
Peace is the first of our concerns.
Indeed, ASEAN was founded, above all, for the
promotion of enduring peace in our region. It is
in this same spirit that Southeast Asians value
the maintenance of peace in the area of Taiwan,
which is quite close to Southeast Asia. Peace
across the Taiwan Strait means, to us, the
political status quo.
Beijing has made it
clear that it is not ruling out the use of force
to forestall any action by Taiwan that would
substantially move it toward de jure independence,
toward a separate legal national existence. Such a
use of force would, in turn, draw in the United
States and probably Japan.
We in Southeast
Asia take China's position seriously. We,
therefore, consider any move by Taiwan toward de
jure independence for the island as something that
could provoke conflict or, at the very least,
shake the stability of the region. Southeast
Asians oppose such a move.
This position
of ours arises not only from a practical desire to
avoid the violent or destabilizing consequences of
such a move by Taiwan. It also flows logically
from the policy of every Southeast Asian state of
recognizing China and Taiwan as, legally speaking,
one country.
I am aware that the question
of a national existence separate from China is a
hot issue in the domestic politics of Taiwan, and
I have no wish to get involved on one side or the
other in this political debate. However, it also
has international, especially regional,
implications on which Taiwan's friends and
neighbors cannot remain silent and from which they
cannot afford to stand aloof.
At the same
time, we understand the urge of Taiwan's people to
participate more fully in the affairs of the
world. Many of us sympathize with it. The people
of Taiwan feel that they are entitled to play a
larger role in the world by virtue of the enormous
political and economic progress that they have
achieved. Moreover, the region and the world would
benefit greatly from such enlarged participation
in the practical realm.
Short of political
independence, therefore, we believe - at least, I
do - that Taiwan should be allowed to take part in
certain international cooperative activities. The
global and regional effort to prepare for and
contain epidemics of contagious diseases, for
example, would benefit from Taiwan's
participation, short of membership, in the World
Health Organization.
Similarly, the marine
and atmospheric environment knows no national
boundaries or political nuances. Its management
through international cooperation would be
enhanced by Taiwan's involvement. Taiwan's
institutions of learning and centers of thinking
and research could contribute much to educational
exchanges and cooperation. Why cannot Taiwan (or
Hong Kong), with its enormous financial reserves,
take part in the Chiang Mai Initiative or the
Asian Bond Market Initiative, currently ASEAN Plus
Three endeavors?
The Chiang Mai Initiative
is a scheme in which ASEAN, China, Japan, and
South Korea subject the regional economy to
constant surveillance and periodic scrutiny so as
to avoid being taken by surprise by another
financial crisis. To discourage speculative
attacks on regional currencies, the scheme
involves a network of bilateral currency swap and
re-purchase agreements that now number 16 and have
a total value of about US$80 billion. It is given
technical support by the Asian Development Bank
(ADB), of which Taiwan is a member.
After
all, like Hong Kong, Taiwan, having its own
currency, central bank, financial reserves, trade
policy and customs jurisdiction, belongs to the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and the
World Trade Organization, as well as the ADB.
Its representatives also participated in
the unofficial workshops on managing potential
conflicts in the South China Sea through the
1990s. Taiwanese participation in regional
cooperation in practical areas, areas that are not
overtly political, would be good not only for
Taiwan but for the region as well.
I know
that it is difficult to imagine such expanded
participation in international affairs happening
under present circumstances. It would be
impossible to imagine if the prospect of it were
to be blatantly invested with political
significance; if it were presented or perceived as
a significant step toward Taiwan's independence.
Not so paradoxically, only by forswearing
a separate national existence can Taiwan hope to
gain the necessary support for its enhanced
involvement in international or regional
cooperative endeavors.
For a long time,
Taiwan's economic linkages with almost all the
countries of Southeast Asia have been solid and
mutually beneficial, in several cases antedating
Southeast Asia's close economic relations with the
Chinese mainland. For most of Southeast Asia,
Taiwan is an important trading partner, a
productive source of investments and technology,
and a wellspring of tourists. There is no reason
such a mutually profitable economic relationship
cannot continue indefinitely and even expand.
However, that relationship should not be
politicized if it is to endure. Trial balloons
have been floated about possible free-trade
agreements (FTAs) between Taiwan and some
Southeast Asian countries. There may be ways of
achieving the commercial objectives of such
agreements without implying that Taiwan is a
sovereign state. In any case, one has to be
extremely careful in doing so on account of the
political implications.
I do not see the
validity of the observation that Taiwan is somehow
left out of the economic scheme of things in East
Asia simply because it is not entering FTAs
similar to those that others are concluding. FTAs
are in essence political documents. They send
important messages to the bureaucracies of the
parties involved, to their business sectors, and
to the international community.
But they
are not essential for trade in goods, trade in
services, investments, and tourism to flourish. In
Taiwan's case, pursuing FTAs for political
purposes, which may be appropriate to sovereign
states, could in fact damage the substantive
relationships that have been so beneficial for
both Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
Being an
inter-governmental organization, ASEAN does not
find it proper to deal officially and as a
regional entity with Taiwan in the same way that
it conducts relations with sovereign states.
However, Taiwan can relate with such ASEAN
business organizations as the ASEAN Chambers of
Commerce and Industry and the ASEAN Business
Advisory Council. And, of course, corporations and
business associations in Taiwan will continue
their very active relationships with individual
Southeast Asian countries. Ministers of some
Southeast Asian countries have even led business
delegations to Taiwan.
In sum, as a
Southeast Asian, I view Taiwan in this way: Taiwan
remains a valuable economic partner for all of
Southeast Asia. It can contribute much to regional
and international cooperative endeavors in many
areas in a manner that does not imply a separate
national existence. It should be able to do so.
However, for the sake of regional peace and
stability, I would like to see Taiwan avoiding any
moves toward de jure independence.
Rodolfo C Severino, a former
ASEAN secretary general (1998-2002), is a visiting
senior research fellow at the Institute of
Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
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