Dealing with China
Awarding the Prize for Freedom to Chen Shui-bian, President of Taiwan, has certainly attracted a lot of attention in Taiwan, the People's Republic of China and Denmark. Unsurprisingly, the People's Republic (PRC) objects to the decision of LI to award this Prize to Mr Chen. Generally, the PRC objects to anything that is given to Taiwan or a Taiwanese person. Therefore, the meeting I had with two representatives of the PRC's embassy in London was utterly predictable.
Politiken, A Danish daily newspaper, has been actively following the debate and in an editorial on 7 March roundly condemned the Western policy of giving in to every whim of mainland China. "...the Danish government's denial of a visa for Taiwan's President Chen Shiu-bian is not only a pettiness, it demonstrates the hollowness of all our talk about human rights and freedoms. It is also an element in Western policy that increases the risk of armed conflict in Asia, because it contributes to China's misconception that power politics can create lasting results in the relationship to Taiwan."
Trade
Politiken has a point. Our governments are all so concerned about losing trade from China that often the Chinese do not even need to threaten sanctions or repercussions. We apply self-censorship to the extreme. Any contact with Taiwan that might offend Beijing's sensitivities is avoided. Never mind that Taiwan is a free country with a democratically elected president and a human rights situation that has improved vastly over the past years. Never mind that most Western countries have a huge trade deficit with mainland China. Never mind that for many Western countries Taiwan is a hugely important trade partner.
For the time being, China is overrated as a trade partner. According to the Dutch foreign Ministry, in 2000 The Netherlands exported 5.1 billion guilders worth to Taiwan and 2.3 billion guilders to China whilst importing 10 billion and 14.5 billion respectively from those countries. According to the WTO, total Chinese imports in 1999 amounted to $165.8 billion (2.8% of world imports) compared to for example $187.6 billion imported by The Netherlands and $220.2 billion imported by Canada. Total Chinese exports in 1999 amounted to $195.2 billion, significantly larger than their imports. Average annual income is about $950 and that does not buy a lot of Western products.
Nevertheless, there is huge potential in China. It has a population of 1.3 billion. Average annual GDP growth has been an estimated 8% over the past five years. Once China joins the WTO, it will be forced to further open its markets. By 2020, China's economy could have grown to the size of the US economy today, assuming that reforms are continued, and amount to well over $10 trillion a year.
"Constructive Engagement"
The only right policy towards China is that of "constructive engagement." That certainly needs to include trading with China. This is even in our own interest: trade streng-thens the middle class and it will be the middle classes that will eventually overthrow the communist regime. Constructive engagement also means cultural and political exchanges (although conversations with Chinese communists can be frightfully boring and repetitive).
Certainly constructive engagement must also mean that we criticise China where it violates basic human rights. Jozias van Aartsen, the Dutch foreign minister, recently cancelled a visit to China because a meeting with Falung Gong representatives was made impossible by the communist authorities. He is a rare good example. Hopefully, the European Union will this time support a US sponsored resolution condemning China's human rights record at the United Nations Commision on Human Rights which is meeting now in Geneva.
There are other issues with China. The death penalty is one. There is of course Tibet, where a whole culture is slowly but systematically being destroyed. There are issues of proliferation of missilie technology and other sensitive military know-how. And then there is Taiwan.
Democracy and Human Rights
Any policy that is based on promoting democracy and human rights must include normal contacts with Taiwan. Talking to the democratically elected president of Taiwan, Mr Chen Shui-bian, is not a move away from the "One China Policy" that so many people treasure so much. It is an acknowledgment that Mr Chen won a free and fair election. It is an acknowledgment that he has made enormous progress in making Taiwan a democracy where human rights are not just a paper thing. And it is an acknowledgment that he has achieved all of this at great personal risk and suffering. For those same reasons Liberal International has awarded its Prize for Freedom to Mr Chen this year. Pretending that the 23 million people that live in Taiwan and their democratically elected president do not exist because that pleases a large communist dictatorship, cannot be a policy that any liberal endorses.
Jan Weijers is Secretary General of Liberal International. "Spotlight" is his new regular column which will appear in every issue from now on. This article originally appeared in issue 40 of the London Aerogramme, the Magazine of Liberal International.
