So it was hardly surprising that when China’s decision to release the 24 detained U.S. crew members ended a standoff that threatened to embroil their island, most Taiwanese breathed a sigh of relief-very quietly.
Taiwan’s media praised American patience, but carefully refrained from antagonizing Beijing. Even outspoken radio talk-show hosts skirted the issue. “When walking between two giants,” said Jaw Shau-kong, a popular commentator for UFO radio, “a small country must tread carefully.”
A PLUS FOR TAIWAN?
On one level, the tension between China and the United States could work in Taiwan’s favor. Heightened American caution about Beijing over the incident may translate into greater protectiveness toward Taiwan-and at least some U.S. legislators hope it will prompt the Bush administration to agree to sell an advanced antimissile defense system to the island in a decision expected later this month.
But some Taiwanese worry that, like Nixon and Reagan before him, President George W. Bush’s stance on China could soften as American businesses push harder for access to the word’s largest market. At the same time, Taiwanese are growing more economically dependent on the mainland-and more fearful of its rapidly modernizing military.
Concerned about offending either side, Taiwan’s media reflects this ambivalence. “China and the U.S.: No Real Winner or Loser,” announced the headline of an editorial in the popular United Daily News. “Since neither side let this incident turn into a major crisis, and further hurt their relationship,” it said, “we can say that both sides won.”
Fear of war dominates public sentiment on Taiwan. The presidential office had remained mostly silent during the crisis. Earlier in the week, President Chen Shui-bian publicized remarks he made to visiting U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, asking the U.S. Congress to “delink” arms sales to Taiwan from the ongoing standoff. After the crew members were released, Chen released a terse statement. “We are happy to see the crisis being resolved rationally and peacefully through a diplomatic approach,” it said.
A SENSE OF RELIEF
Mainstream media reflected a sense of relief that conflict had been avoided. The China Times, Taiwan’s highest-circulation newspaper, praised Bush for his “patience” in defusing the situation. “That he was able to transform his initial strong demand to immediately return the crew members and the plane into an expression of regret, and to counsel the need for patience while letting diplomacy take its course, must make us all view him with surprised awe,” said the publication.
Only one major newspaper, the Liberty Times, dared to criticize Beijing. While most of the media remains in the hands of the former ruling party, the Kuomintang, which advocates eventual unification with China, the Liberty Times is more sympathetic to Taiwanese independence. That newspaper compared Beijing’s handling of the incident to a famous character in a novel by the Chinese writer Lu Xun.
In the novel, the character “A-Q,” always transforms his disgraces into “moral victories” by pretending they represent the outcome he desired all along. “Although the U.S. wouldn’t directly apologize, the Chinese feigned ignorance and translated it into Chinese as an apology,” wrote the newspaper. “This made the Chinese people feel that the American superpower had apologized to them-it’s the Chinese way of achieving a moral victory.” In so far as it defused a tense situation, it was a victory for the Taiwanese as well.
