Taiwan’s Double Ten: Tsai Ing-wen says ‘willing to seek peace with Beijing’ – BBC News

She added, “Beijing authorities should not misjudge because of Taiwan’s active democratic system; misunderstand that the Taiwanese people’s insistence on democracy and freedom can be compromised, and then try to use the fierce competition between political parties to divide Taiwanese society. ……I would like to appeal to the Beijing authorities that confrontation is definitely not an option for both sides of the strait. Only respecting the Taiwanese people’s insistence on sovereignty, democracy and freedom is the foundation for reviving positive cross-strait interactions.”

According to Taiwanese media statistics, Tsai Ing-wen mentioned “Republic of China” 3 times, “Republic of China Taiwan” 3 times and “Taiwan” 51 times during the 24-minute speech.

In an interview with Taiwan Central News Agency, Professor Bao Chengke of the Shanghai East Asian Institute in China responded to Tsai Ing-wen’s speech, and he criticized the content of Tsai’s speech. He said that respect for “sovereignty” in Tsai Ing-wen’s speech contradicted Beijing’s position: “Because Taiwan has no sovereignty,” Beijing’s basic policy toward Taiwan is that both sides of the strait belong to one China.”

Bao Chengke also said that Taiwan must return to the “1992 Consensus” emphasized by Ma Ying-jeou and discuss it under the same “one China framework” in order to grasp the real requirements for cross-strait peace.

In fact, since Tsai Ing-wen has been in power for more than six years, the reform of Taiwan’s military has always been the focus of her administration. The theme of this year’s Double Tenth Festival in Taiwan is “Defend the Country, You and I Walk Together”.

When Tsai Ing-wen attended the “Double Ten” party held in Taoyuan, Taiwan on Sunday (October 9), she said, “Faced with external challenges, the brothers and sisters in the national army are calm and composed, and they are on the front line to protect the safety of the Chinese people. Together, we will be able to protect our country and our homeland.”

In addition, this year, Taiwan specially invited students from the well-known “Tachibana High School” in Kyoto, Japan, to come to Taiwan. Dozens of female high school students performed with the theme of “Always full of energy for the 60th anniversary of Taiwan-Japan friendship! Full of smiles! Full of dreams!” To consolidate Taiwan-Japan relations through cultural exchanges.

James F. Moriarty, president of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), delivered a speech at the “Double Oak Park” celebration party of the Taiwan Representative Office in Washington, DC on October 5, saying that the United States will continue to focus on many shared interests and values. , expand cooperation with Taiwan, and will support Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community.

Looking back at the past history, many countries that have no diplomatic relations with Taiwan will not particularly publicly celebrate Taiwan’s “Double Tenth National Day”.

However, in the past two years or so, countries such as Lithuania, whose exchanges with Taiwan have begun to accelerate frequently, have, for the first time, posted a tweet to celebrate Taiwan’s “Happy Double Tenth Day” on the Twitter of the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a rare statement that has attracted public attention in Taiwan. Shen Rongqin, an associate professor of Taiwanese at York University in Canada, commented on Facebook: “Lithuania is the bravest country at any time. Although congratulations come from all over the world, there are not many official accounts of countries that do this. Lithuania is very skilled in congratulations. , use “Double Tenth Day” instead of ‘National Day of the Republic of China’ or ‘National Day of Taiwan’.”

However, on the eve of Taiwan’s “Double Tenth Day”, Elon Musk, the world‘s richest man and CEO of Tesla, mentioned in an exclusive interview with the British media “Financial Times” that for cross-strait peace, war is avoided The solution is that Taiwan implements the Hong Kong model and becomes China’s “special administrative region”. Immediately after the interview was published, it caused an uproar in Taiwan, and the two major parties in Taiwan rarely attacked at the same time.

In this interview, Musk mentioned that a “cross-strait war” now seems inevitable, but the global economic damage caused by the Taiwan Strait war will be a devastating disaster. He therefore suggested that “envisioning a reasonably feasible special administrative region for Taiwan may not satisfy everyone…may be a bit more relaxed than Hong Kong.”

Chen Shizhong, the Democratic Progressive Party’s Taipei mayoral candidate and avant-garde minister of welfare, criticized Musk’s remarks as being very impolite and inappropriate for Taiwan. He responded to the Taiwanese media, saying, “It’s not that mainland China is bad, but we must take Hong Kong as a warning. Only by respecting ourselves can life and property be protected. Taking Hong Kong as an example, the risk is very high, and everyone should be careful.”

In fact, Musk discussed the Russian-Ukrainian war with similar arguments in the past few weeks. He said Ukraine might have to permanently cede places such as Crimea and hold a referendum under the auspices of the United Nations to decide the fate of Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory, prompting rebuke from Ukrainian officials, even though he has previously used his company’s Starlink technology has been praised for helping Ukraine defend against Russian forces.

Dr. Shen Xuhui, a Hong Kong international relations scholar who teaches in Taiwan, commented on Musk’s speech on his personal website, saying that he believes that Musk really does not want war, but his motivation is more related to economic interests. He said that war always brings economic opportunities, “it’s just that opportunity equals the redistribution of power and resources… At this moment, Musk, as the biggest vested interest in the world‘s current system, naturally does not want the situation to change, so that the He bought time to “build a country” for himself.

Shen Xuhui analyzed that compared to the traditional rich, Musk is “more like the “Non-state Actors” (NSA) described by the international relations academic circle, that is, individuals (or their enterprises) operate with the logic of a sovereign state,” according to Shen Xuhui. Other countries are equal partners or opponents, and they are also the objects of the game. “

He emphasized that people like Musk or the CEO of Facebook, these new rich people are sometimes very contemptuous of the state, “and they are creating a new world… For example, he advocates cryptocurrencies and advocates “interstellar vision” “The ambition of reneging on the acquisition of Twitter, but clearly wanting to have control of global network communications, is fundamentally positioning itself as the terminator of the traditional world and the godfather of the new era.”

In response to Musk’s remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said at a regular press conference on October 8, “The Taiwan issue is China’s internal affairs, and China’s position on resolving the Taiwan issue is consistent and clear, and we will continue to adhere to “peaceful reunification” The basic policy of “one country, two systems”, with the greatest sincerity and best efforts to achieve the peaceful reunification of the two sides of the strait.”

According to reports, Musk’s electric car maker Tesla (Tesla) has a large factory in Shanghai, and its output accounted for about 50% of the global vehicle delivery last year.

In addition, AIT Chairman Mo Jian delivered a keynote speech at the annual meeting of the Washington-based think tank “Global Taiwan Research Center” (GTI) on October 5, emphasizing that the US “Taiwan Relations Act” clearly states that “blockade” is a form of coercion First, if anyone tries to change Taiwan’s status by force, the United States needs to take action.