A few days ago, a media reported that "Mahibashi Mahbubani urges Taiwan not to declare independence, otherwise it may "automatically trigger a war."" Mahbubani, Singapore's former ambassador to the United Nations, made remarks related to Taiwan at a forum in Malaysia, calling on Taiwan not to declare independence, otherwise it might "automatically trigger a war." He also suggested that Taipei should maintain Taiwan's autonomy and way of life while accepting unification with mainland China in principle. In fact, the Indian-born Mahbubani Mahbubani's skeletal statement of "a small country kneeling before a big one" was publicly denounced by Singapore's Minister of Law Shanmugam and Senior Ambassador Bilahari as "confused, hypocritical and intellectually questionable" as early as 2017. Capitulationism, which even the Singaporean establishment despises, is now regarded as a norm by Taiwan's specific media. How ironic.
Former Singapore ambassador to the United Nations Mahbubani Mahbubani called on Taiwan not to declare independence, otherwise it might "automatically trigger a war." He also suggested that Taipei should maintain Taiwan's autonomy and way of life while accepting unification with mainland China in principle. (Bloomberg File Photo) His remarks echoed Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar’s recent bad remarks on Taiwan: In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, Anwar publicly stated that “Taiwan is part of China,” and even insinuated that our country is a Chinese separatist province. He absurdly claimed that Beijing’s use of force would be justified if peaceful reunification failed. This move was tantamount to publicly endorsing the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party’s military reunification of Taiwan. The inappropriate remarks made by these two Southeast Asian politicians about "governing things too far" are actually whitewashing the expansion of the authoritarian system on the international stage. However, history and reality have already dealt the bloodiest slap in the face: when Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was sentenced to twenty years under the National Security Law, six senior executives of Apple Daily were imprisoned, and the newspaper’s assets were forcibly confiscated, the so-called “surrendering sovereignty in exchange for autonomy” has been proven to be a complete political scam.
What is worrying is that this appeasement logic of "a small country serving a big country" is not unique to Southeast Asia. Within Taiwan, certain media are using a sophisticated public opinion production and marketing chain to package this set of surrender letters into news and political commentary. At a time when tensions across the Taiwan Strait are tense, they are conducting a cognitive plunder of Taiwanese society.
Examining this group of "local collaborators" in Taiwan, their operating methods are mainly intertwined with two core routines. The first is to interview specific retired generals and pro-China imperial scholars. They used their past military titles or academic aura to make defeatist statements such as "the communist military exercises have achieved a complete blockade capability", "the US military has no time to rush to rescue", and "the national army has no resistance". While enjoying the generous pensions and freedom brought by Taiwan's democratic system, this group of people kowtows to Beijing in united front forums such as the Straits Forum, trying to create a collective fear within Taiwan that "resistance will be defeated."
In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim publicly stated that "Taiwan is part of China" and even insinuated that our country is a separatist province of China. (Reuters file photo) Second, it is to manipulate the endorsement effect of "frustrated politicians of the Democratic Progressive Party". Red and blue media and specific political commentary programs are extremely keen on interviewing frustrated politicians or former political officials who used to belong to the green camp but left the party for some reason. For dark blue or centrist voters, if the blue camp criticizes the green camp, it is often blamed on the vicious fighting between political parties; but if a "former DPP person" comes out to scold the current government for being "pro-American and provoking war," it will have a powerful persuasive power that "even sober green camp people cannot stand." In order to maintain their own political life and media traffic, these frustrated politicians often publish more radical surrender statements than the blue camp, becoming Beijing's most convenient tool to divide Taiwan's internal unity.
The rhetoric spread by these collaborators in Taiwan is essentially selling the fake medicine of "exchanging dignity for peace". They blame the Taiwan government for "not recognizing the 1992 Consensus and provoking China" for the Communist Party's circumvention of Taiwan and military bullying, but are selectively blind to the CCP's evil expansion in the South China Sea and the East China Sea. They attempt to use "fear" to extort the right to exist in a democratic society and use "chess piece theory" to cut off mutual trust between Taiwan and the international community. Their ultimate goal is to force the Taiwanese people to the dead end of negotiating reunification with China.
The US Navy missile destroyer USS Higgins (left, USS Higgins) and the New Zealand Navy logistics supply ship USS Aotearoa (right, HMNZS Aotearoa) pass through the Taiwan Strait. (AFP, Reuters file photo, combined by this newspaper) Fortunately, Taiwanese society has demonstrated stronger democratic immunity than Southeast Asian countries in facing this cognitive storm. In the face of authoritarian intimidation, Taiwan has already coalesced into four unshakable core values: upholding the identity of the Republic of China, upholding Taiwan priority, upholding democracy and freedom, and supporting independent defense. This is a sharp weapon that can crush all capitulation and suspicion of the United States. Taiwanese voters are increasingly able to see through the interest-price relationship between this group of retired generals and the famous talkers who "eat Taiwan's food and destroy Taiwan's pot." The United States, Japan, and EU countries regularly dispatch warships through the Taiwan Strait and jointly declare their opposition to substantive actions to change the status quo, which directly exposes the "Taiwan isolation theory" concocted by collaborators.
Appeasement before World War II failed to stop the Nazis, and bowing to authoritarianism today will never bring peace across the Taiwan Strait. From Jimmy Lai’s twenty-year severe sentence to the chorus of support from Mahbubani Mahbubani, Anwar and local collaborators in Taiwan, this is a transnational cognitive battle. Taiwanese people must stay awake. Only by straightening their backs, strengthening their own defense, and working closely with the international democratic camp can they preserve the freedoms won with the blood and sweat of their predecessors. Peace that surrenders sovereignty is not peace, it is the beginning of slavery.
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was sentenced to twenty years in prison under the National Security Law. (AP file photo) (The author is a retired trade promoter)
