A Chinese Commonwealth

I stumbled onto an essay (Chinese version here) on a proposal to best mend the tension in the Taiwan Straight by Taiwan’s National Policy Foundation. The heart of the essay is a proposal made by the NPF to reunite China and Taiwan under a concept pioneered by the British Empire, a Chinese Commonwealth.

The idea is that commonwealth nations behave as independently run and governed countries. They have the rights of an autonomous nation. However, under the umbrella of the commonwealth, these nations are actually “nation states” that pledge their ultimate allegiance to one power (in the case of the British Commonwealth, the Queen). The paper argues that, with this arrangement, Taiwan would retain all of its autonomy while enjoying one-nation status with China. Taiwan would be free to negotiate its own treaties, appoint its own ambassadors, regulate its trade and hold elections without interference from China, just like Great Britain does not interfere with any of its commonwealth nations (Canada, Australia, Malaysia… etc).

The paper also revealed that China had already considered such possibility back in 1997 when its supreme leader, Deng Xiaoping was still alive. But Taiwan had always held the position that unless China became demarcated, reunification wouldn’t be possible. The relationship with China worsened when a pro-independence president, Chen Shui-bien was elected (twice!).

Many scholars believe that the next century is going to be the Chinese century. And the reunification of China and Taiwan is going to be a key element in strengthening that position. Personally, I think Taiwan would be silly to go it alone in the next 50 years. Its people has the insight, cultural similarity and language to play a decisive role in being an active participant of the next economic wave through the success of China.

今天在電視上看到台灣的立委雷倩到美國來訪問。她在灣區一個華人電視上談到個蠻有趣的東西, 就是 “中華國協”。其實這當中的精髓是直接向大英帝國時期沿留下的 “大英國協” 作為樣本。後來上網找了一下才發現這玩意兒是由連戰啟辦的財團法人國家政策研究基金會所發表的一篇論文。其中提到了一些兩岸統一後的假設及建議。

論文中提到如果以國協的方式統一, 台灣就可保有它現在的自主權, 甚至可以以國協的方式申請加入聯合國。國協的前提當然就是一國兩制。就像英國現在也從來不會介管加拿大, 澳洲或馬來西亞等國協聯盟的任何大小國事。雖然這些國家名義上都已是有自主權的獨立國, 他們最終效忠的還是英國的皇后。

我覺得台獨這東西太不為台灣兩千多萬的人民著想了。台獨對台灣一點好處都沒有。雖然大陸和台灣的文化和習俗上的確是入差很大, 但是回頭想想, 美國東, 中, 西岸也都有不小的差別… 更別提到北部和南部的差異了。所以以一個大國來講, 也許這是無法改變的形態。人家都說在不久的將來會是中國人的世紀。在這時候搞台獨未免也太不會挑時間了吧… 台灣在大陸有他國沒有的優勢, 包括語言, 文化, 背景等等都把台灣的人民擺在這個中國人世紀改革的最前線。如果時機錯過了, 台灣在百年後可能連在教科書上也只能當附註罷了。