Font size: 
As this objection was ignored, the Chinese government made a second request -- it asked Japan not to give Lee a courteous reception when he visited the Yasukuni Shrine to pray for his dead brother, who lost his life for Japan in World War II. Instead, China argued that Lee should queue up for the ticket like any ordinary person.
The PRC government has tried every possible means to get the Japanese government and people to humiliate Lee and the Republic of China. It is like a soap opera whose curtain never falls.
This is a typical scene caused by the jinx of the "one China" policy. There are many other similar ones. For example, the Chinese government asks all countries that have diplomatic ties with it to prevent ROC leaders -- especially the president, vice president, and other top leaders -- from visiting or even transiting through their countries. A wide selection of countries, including the United States, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and others in the Middle East, Africa and Europe, have obeyed China's request. By doing so, those nations diplomatically view Taiwan as part of the PRC.
Despite the internal struggles over independence and national identity, as well as other unsolved important issues, within Taiwan the government and people all disapprove of the way many countries treat Taiwan's top officials. There are also some other countries that do not consent to China's bully tactics, intended to suppress Taiwan's development in the international community. Even so, China's influence and impact in the international community is obviously very strong.
The reason a majority of countries cooperate with China is that, on one hand, countries with formal diplomatic relations are supposed to respect and maintain peace with each other based on diplomatic etiquette and authority; on the other hand, those countries think it is better to have as few incidents as possible, and they don't want to worsen their relationship with China. What's more, they don't want to see China resort to violence toward Taiwan.
Frankly speaking, the fact that to tolerate evil is to encourage evil-doers has been ignored in the international community. This is tantamount to a psychological concession to a future invader. If the present situation continues, war across the Taiwan Straits might occur soon. There is threat of war as long as China has enough power to annex Taiwan, and Taiwan takes some diplomatic action that goes beyond the Chinese Communist Party's tolerance limit. For instance, as soon as the ROC announces it has officially changed its name to "Taiwan," war could break out. If the international community does not work hard to remove the jinx of the "one China" policy in time, there will be a war between the two sides probably no later than five years from now.
This jinx was started by Chiang Kai-Shek, founding president of the ROC, after World War II in 1949. Then it was strengthened by Zhou Enlai, former premier of the PRC. Today it seems that no one can remove it. The only solution is if the United States, Japan, Europe, Britain, Germany, France, and other countries would together sing the hymn of truth in order to remove the jinx and restore freedom, sincerity and diplomatic vigor to international relations.
The hymn of truth that would remove the jinx would be to acknowledge that soon after World War II, in 1949, China was divided into two countries: "the Republic of China" and "the People's Republic of China." The two countries should have followed the principle of mutual respect and peace for future reunification. Before 1971, Chiang Kai-Shek distorted history by saying that the ROC was the only China and the PRC was just part of it. After 1971, the Chinese Communist Party distorted history by saying that the PRC was actually the only China and the ROC was part of it. These two opposing views have made the jinx very complicated and difficult to untie.
The existence of this jinx has forced the nations of the world to dance to the magic wand for a long time. It has afforded no respect to either the 1.3 billion mainland Chinese or the 23 million Taiwanese. It is indeed unwise for countries to pretend to be blind by keeping this jinx alive. It is obviously against common sense. It amounts to playing with diplomatic relations and neglecting human rights, which the whole international community should abandon.
In order to welcome a global era of reconciliation and peace, the international community should be fully awakened from the long-time "one China" jinx.
--
(Chang Chuan-fong is Asia Director of the International Educational Foundation, based in Macau, China, and former associate professor in the Department of Education at Minghsin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan.©Copyright Chang Chuan-fong.)
