Taiwan Leader's Proposed 'Poll', a Disastrous Step

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, August 18, 2002

Taiwan Leader's Proposed 'Poll', a Disastrous Step

Chen Shui-bian's call for legislation on a referendum to decide the future of Taiwan in his August 3 remarks is his latest attempt to separate this island from the motherland.

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Chen Shui-bian's call for legislation on a referendum to decide the future of Taiwan in his August 3 remarks is his latest attempt to separate this island from the motherland.

However, there is completely no legal basis for such a referendum.

Professor Liu Wenzong with Beijing-based Foreign Affairs College noted that, according to the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to the Colonial Country and People approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 1960, a referendum is suitable for deciding the future of a certain region, which used to be a colony or dominion of another state and which was an independent state in history.

The following two circumstances, according to international laws and practices, can also be settled by referendum.

First, the residents of a region, over which sovereign states are in dispute, can vote to decide which state has the ownership of this region.

Second, a referendum can also be held to decide the change of a nation's title (but not for establishing a new state).

The most recent instance of a referendum being held is that of East Timor. Then administered by Portugal, East Timor was placed on the UN agenda in 1960 when it was added to the list of non-self-governing territories.

Unable to control the situation in East Timor when a civil war broke out there in 1970s between those who favoured independence and those who advocated integration with Indonesia, Portugal withdrew.

By military intervention, Indonesia integrated East Timor as one of its provinces in 1976, which was never recognized by the UN. At the request of the General Assembly in June 1998, Indonesia proposed a limited autonomy for East Timor within Indonesia and shortly thereafter entrusted the Secretary-General with organizing and conducting a "popular consultation" in order to ascertain whether the East Timorese people accepted or rejected a special autonomy for East Timor within the unitary Republic of Indonesia.

On August 30, 1999, some 98 per cent of registered East Timorese voters went to the polls. The result was that 78.5 per cent rejected the proposed autonomy and began a process of transition towards independence.

Taiwan cannot be compared with East Timor, according to Professor Liu. The Taiwan question cannot be solved by referendum.

Taiwan has never been a sovereign state since Taiwan has belonged to China from ancient times. The earliest historical record which documented the development of Taiwan by the Chinese people can be dated back to the period of the Three Kingdoms more than 1,700 years ago.

From the 12th century to the end of 19th century, the governments of various Chinese dynasties have had effective administration over this island.

Defeated in the Sino-Japanese war, the Qing government was forced to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, ceding Taiwan to Japan.

During the Second World War, the Allied powers were committed to returning to China all the territories Japan seized from China, such as Manchuria, Taiwan (Formosa) and Penghu (the Pescadores), in the Cairo Declaration of 1943, which was reaffirmed in the Potsdam Proclamation of 1945. Japan later expressed its acceptance of the Cairo Declaration officially in writing after it surrendered to the Allied forces. Therefore, Taiwan, after 50 years of colonial rule by Japan, was returned to China de jure and de facto at the end of the Second World War, which is recognized globally.

Since Taiwan is a part of China, its sovereignty is owned by the whole Chinese people rather than only the people residing in this island. Taiwan is owned not just by the 2.3 million Taiwan residents but by all 1.3 billion Chinese people.

It would be a serious violation of the fundamental principle of human rights if the Chinese people on the mainland were deprived of the right to decide the future of a part of their country.

Therefore, as Professor Liu said, no legal basis exists for holding a referendum to decide the future of Taiwan. Without legal basis, any attempt to destroy the territorial integrity of China is doomed to fail.

Professor Yan Xuetong, director of the Institute of International Studies with Tsinghua University, said a referendum is just the means that the separatists in Taiwan attempt to legitimize their separatist activities to fulfil their own political ambitions.

Yan warned that any unilateral pursuit of separating a part from a country would only result in a civil war.

The attempt to decide Taiwan's future through a so-called "referendum" is no different to playing with fire, which would finally lead Taiwan to the abyss of disaster.

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