A political illusion of peace (across Taiwan-strait)? | J. Michael Cole | TEDxTaoyuan

Taiwan has established a model of successful transition in political power (from autocracy to democracy). However, continuing threat from the other side of the Taiwan strait is always present and the "peaceful" condition distracts world attention. What can be done and how can the current situation be turned around? J. Michael Cole suggests some pathways.

J. Michael Cole has published several books and approximately 2,000 newspaper and journal articles about Taiwan and China in the Wall Street Journal, The Diplomat, Huffington Post, CNN, and several others. He was deputy news editor at the Taipei Times from 2010-2013 and served as a senior member of the Thinking Taiwan Foundation from 2014-2016. He is currently Senior Non-Resident Fellow with the China Policy Institute, University of Nottingham, and Associate Researcher with the French Center for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC) in Taipei. He appears regularly on CNN, Al-Jazeera, Channel News Asia, Bloomberg TV, BBC, Radio Taiwan International, and other international media.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

(Chinese) Hello.

It's truly an honor to be here today.

I moved from Canada to Taiwan
a little more than 11 years ago,

and ever since that time,
I really have struggled as a journalist,

as a writer and as a human being

to find the proper definition

for what "peace" means
in the Taiwan Strait.

Perhaps, unlike anywhere
else on the planet,

the Taiwan Strait truly challenges
the very definition of what "peace" means,

or at least the rather simplistic way

we oftentimes use to refer to that term.

This is the term "peace"

that politicians on both sides
of the Taiwan Strait,

in Beijing and in Taipei,

have used and abused
repeatedly over the years.

During the eight years of the President
Ma Ying-jeou administration,

President Ma himself often told us
that the Taiwan Strait,

which for decades had threatened to be
a zone of conflict and perhaps even war,

was quickly being transformed
into an "avenue of peace,"

or so he said.

For whatever reason,
the international community,

the diplomats,
the academics and the media,

also believed that peace
was indeed at hand.

"Peace was good," we were told.

It was good for business,
and ultimately it was good for humanity.

For a little while,
it did look like the two sides

were on the brink
of resolving their differences.

Politicians from both sides
of the Taiwan Strait

were meeting repeatedly.

And perhaps, even more importantly,

ordinary people, academics, journalists,

students, businessmen, investors,

were also making contact
through tourism and other activities.

For many of them,
this was for the first time.

The two governments
did tone down the rhetoric

and they also de-emphasized

the military nature of relations
in the Taiwan Strait.

And again, this is something
that most people globally

did believe was indeed the case in Taiwan.

However, absence of war
does not mean absence of conflict

and absence of conflict certainly
does not mean "peace,"

which is the subject of our talk today.

And yes, President Ma Ying-jeou
and Chinese president Xi Jinping

sat down together and toasted each other
in Singapore in late 2015.

But in the end,

the very fundamentals of that conflict,

the essence of the conflict
in the Taiwan Strait was never addressed.

There never was peace ever.

It was all the politics of illusion.

It was the illusion of peace.

Nevertheless, the international community

having convinced itself
that peace was at hand,

attention shifted elsewhere

and the media turned
to this part of the world,

which certainly offers
a series of opportunities for drama,

from North Korea trying
to develop nuclear weapons

to rampant human rights abuses

in places like China, Myanmar,
Cambodia, and recently in the Philippines,

to war in countries like Pakistan,
Afghanistan, and Syria.

While the world was not paying attention
there was a storm brewing in Taiwan,

a storm that would put the lie
to the very notion

that peace was finally arriving
in the Taiwan Strait.

That storm came to be known
as the "Sunflower Movement,"

which occupied Parliament in Taipei
for 21 days in March and April 2014

over a controversial
services trade agreement with China.

Now that storm was not something sudden.

The seeds of that storm were sown
throughout Taiwan's history,

from its long, painful, traumatic history

of invasion, of colonization,
of massacres,

like the "228 Massacre" of February 1947,

to authoritarian rule from the Japanese

during the "White Terror" under the KMT.

A long history of exile, imprisonment,
suffering, returned to Taiwan,

and then gradually economic
development, liberalization,

and in the end, during the 1990s,
finally democratization.

So now, thanks to President Ma's efforts
of rapprochement with China,

all these differences,
all these contradictions

really became evident
to a number of Taiwanese.

They were finally forced to look through
the looking glass at themselves,

and ask themselves
"What is Taiwan all about?"

So at a time when people
were waxing eloquent

about President Ma Ying-Jeou,

that perhaps deserving
the Nobel Peace Prize

for his efforts to improve
relations with China,

for the Taiwanese themselves

it was very evident that the kind of peace
that was being proposed to them

was a peace of imposition.

Ultimately, that peace or the removal
of a threat of war from China

was tantamount to submission;

and recent developments
in Hong Kong as well

clearly demonstrated to the Taiwanese

that an imposed peace on Chinese terms

is not what they want
for their own country.

That does not mean
that the Taiwanese do not want peace,

but they simply do not want
that to be imposed.

During that period,
a lot of people would say,

"Well, then, if the two sides
came to better understand each other

through contact,"

- this is something that many
Chinese academics have said -

"then maybe perhaps the impediment

to peace in the Taiwan Strait
and reconciliation would be removed."

Other people argued that if
and when China democratizes

then those impediments
to peace in the Taiwan Strait

would finally be removed

and the Taiwanese would be
perhaps more animable

to some form of unification with China.

The problem with this approach
or understanding of the Taiwan Strait

is that ultimately the conflict itself

stems from much more than simply
different political systems

that are either chosen

or oftentimes imposed
from above on the public.

The notion of the nation itself
is a matter of identity,

it's a combination of values of history.

Yes, indeed, the political system as well

that is liberal democratic for Taiwan

and for many young Taiwanese
the only political system that they know.

But again,

political systems are not
the only determinants of the nation,

and if that were the case

then fellow democracies like Canada,
United States, for example,

would long ago have unified,

or former members of the British Empire,

at least those that democratized
over the years

would also at some point in their history

been open to redefine
with the British Empire.

Now, obviously this sells
rather preposterous

and my years in Taiwan
have actually made it clear to me as well

through my researches and my writing

that the Chinese claims on Taiwan
are themselves quite preposterous.

Now for the majority of us who live here,

this is quite self-evident.

I think ordinary Taiwanese
through their everyday lives

already give voice
to that separate identity,

even if they don't exactly know
how to explain it or give it a voice.

The problem is that freedom
for Taiwan and Taiwan's future

are not solely determined
by the Taiwanese themselves.

This is unfair, but this is the reality.

If that were the case again,

Taiwan would long ago
have become a sovereign state,

it would have established
official diplomatic relations

with a number of countries

and it would be a full participant
in the community of nations.

The reality is that
this is about all for geopolitics.

Geopolitics is the stage
where Taiwan must compete with China

to get itself known

and to earn the sympathy
of the international community.

Unfortunately, this is an area

where Taiwan has not done
particularly well over the years.

Despite its many selling virtues -

it is a successful democracy,
it is a major economy,

and it is a precious example
in post-colonialism -

Taiwan has not been able to use

all that baggage of history and success

to really tell its story
to the international community

and let people known worldwide
why Taiwan matters.

This is something

that the Taiwanese government itself,

including the current administration,
are not very good at.

Which leads me to conclude

that it is every
Taiwanese's responsibility

to do what he or she can,
using their own ways

to tell to the rest of the world
what Taiwan is all about.

It is s a challenge
that should also be picked up

by the Taiwanese overseas,

most of whom have rebuilt their lives,

and in many cases
cut all contact with their homeland.

Unfortunately, for Taiwan,

the Chinese diaspora has been
a lot more vocal and activist

in spreading China's version of history,

thus giving Beijing
a major advantage over Taipei

when it comes to public diplomacy.

Taiwan has been
very successful in business,

at exporting itself
and its model globally,

but in the world of public diplomacy
they have not been as successful.

So now Taiwan really needs
to start to stop thinking like an island

and really join the community of nations
and be vocal about what it is.

It needs to learn to sell itself,
not just its products.

Now, definitely,

there is a role as well
for Taiwanese of all stripes again,

they need to find a language
by which to explain

why Taiwan matters
to the international community.

And by language, I don't just mean
the written and spoken words,

they need to find the language of emotion,

they need to use the arts,
culture, tourism to attract people

and to make Taiwan better known
to the international community.

Right now, academic journals,

academic conferences
and volumes are adventurous

to a very narrow group of individuals
who are not large enough,

or perhaps not even influential enough
to make a difference in the Taiwan Strait.

So really the Taiwanese
need to find new ways, new models,

to really engage
the international community

in a more effective way.

It's quite surprising,
because despite all its virtues,

Taiwan is very likely the most successful

and certainly the most peaceful country
on the face of the planet,

that faces an existential threat
from a larger, authoritarian regime.

But despite the fact
that it has the moral high ground,

oftentimes it is ignored
by the international community

or sometimes it is even
compared to rogue regimes

like North Korea or Zimbabwe,
to use two examples.

That is unfair, but that is the reality.

Two other peoples who have been locked
for several decades in the land issue

are the Palestinians and the Israelis.

Notwithstanding the fact that these
two peoples have used, over the years,

kidnappings, state terror, state violence,

these two peoples have
still succeeded in earning the respect

and appealing
to the international community

and certainly to international sympathy.

So we really need to ask ourselves
why is it that Taiwan,

democratic, peaceful Taiwan,

has not been able to earn for itself
the kind of visibility and sympathy

that states, that behaves
much more dangerously than Taiwan.

This is a question
that I certainly would like to leave

each and every one of you today with.

Ultimately, what needs to be accomplished

is to tell the community of nations
why Taiwan matters.

In a world that seems to have lost
all sense in recent months,

in recent weeks, with the
assassination of foreign diplomats

or entire cities being destroyed
in countries like Syria,

and we will have speakers
from war-torn Syria later this afternoon,

Taiwan is a shining example
of an alternative,

of a different path,

of a nation that came
from a very dark and painful past

and was able, without bloodshed,
without destroying entire cities,

to reinvent itself and to rebuild itself

as a country, as a participant
in the community of nations.

I think this is
an extraordinary accomplishment

that the Taiwanese have not been
vocal enough about internationally.

They have been, in my opinion,
a little bit too humble

when it comes to their ability
as a whole, as a people,

regardless of the political parties
that they vote for,

to build a nation, to achieve something
quite extraordinary and precious

in the face of immense
external challenges,

not only from China
but from the community of nations

that more often than not
chose to ignore it.

Another reason why I believe Taiwan
is very important and matters

is the fact that the matter
in which conflict

in the Taiwan Strait will be resolved

will very much be a determinant
of the kind of China

that the international community

will have to deal with
for decades to come.

This is very, very important.

If we feed the beast
by giving it what it wants,

in unjust terms for the Taiwanese,

we will be creating a monster
that will cause serious trouble

for the community of nations again
for decades to come.

To make sure or at least
limit the possibility

that Taiwan would be annexed by China,

its best weapon
is to make itself better known

and better explain itself
to the community of nations.

Otherwise, if people ignore it

then China will easily get away

with what it covets,
which is ultimately to annex Taiwan.

So definitely, knowledge is Taiwan's
best ally to ensure its survival,

and lack of knowledge
and ignorance are its worst enemy.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)