The Paradox Side of Political Domination & The Rights of Self Determination
Nowadays, East Asia has became one of the most valuable regions in international systems. The raising of East Asia in order to gain its power is not a figment no more, on the other hand, East Asia countries are growing up rapidly that many of them undoubtedly has gained its power on several sectors, especially on economics fields. For instance, in 2016 Japan succeeded to obtain its GDP nearly 5 trillions USD, but on the other side, Indonesia with much larger territory had only succeeded to produce 932 billions USD. According to this phenomenon, Japan as a relatively small country could achieve 6 times more than Indonesian GDP.[1]
The significant economics growth of East Asia from regionalism framework definitely is not just visible from Japan development, any other countries such as South Korea, Tiongkok, or even Taiwan should be counted as competitive countries, particularly in economics sector. But, in contrary, while East Asia is continously growing its economics market, and be seen as astrong region, there are many serious issues around. The tension of two Korea states is one of them. Even though they have the same culture and historical lines, there’s no single thing that could guarantee to decrease their political dynamics, especially in Demilitarization Zone. Another issue that must not be consider for granted is the status of Taiwan, either as an sovereign state or as a part of People’s Republic of Tiongkok. On one side, Taiwan had claimed itself as an independence states, however, it lacks the recognition of other sovereign states which is a fundamental element in order to establish a so-called sovereign state.
Based on the overlap claims over Taiwan, therefore this paper is aim to discuss the paradox side of Tiongkok political domination and Taiwan’s rights of self determination.
Definition
There are several terms that need to be describe in order to syncronize the perception to it, such as paradox, self-determination rights and political domination. Term paradox comes from a Greek language, paradoxon, it means a contradiction from expectation.[2] Then, paradox gets its meaning as an impossible or an indecribable situation because it contains more than one contradictive characteristic.[3] According to its etimologically meaning, we could conclude paradox is a situation which have two conflicted sides so that it is hard or impossible to be understood.
Regarding right of self determination, there are two UN declarations: Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; and the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR). the two covenants was came to force in 1976 and has been recognized by 165 countries.[4]
There are two aspects according to CCPR point of view, internal and external, especially, in article one of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Based on internal aspect, rights of self determination is civic rights to govern itself without any interventions from outside. On the other side, external aspect refers to the rights of person or group to determine its political status and to be free from other dominations, including the domination of its sovereign country.[5]
i) All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of the right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
ii) All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources without prejudice to any obligations arising out of international economic cooperation, based upon the principle of mutual benefit, and international law. In no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence.
iii) The States Parties to the present Covenant, including those having responsibility for the administration of Non-Self-Governing and Trust Territories, shall promote the realization of the right of self?determination, and shall respect that right, in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.[6]
Last but but least, political domination could be defined as a particular condition which one side gained more power than the other sides in political fields. Therefore, in the countries level, political domination happens if a specific country has more power and influence than other countries.
The Origins of Tiongkok Sovereignity over Taiwan
It is hard to refuse that basically Taiwan is the valid part of Tiongkok itself, and it is even harder because history has recorded how Tiongkok as the mainland had been spreading its influences and its power to the ancient Taiwan. For example, Taiwan has been being the part of Tiongkok since 475 BC and the people in those days called the Island of Taiwan as Daiyuan.[7] Then, in 1684 Dinasty of Qing established taiwan Prefecture under the administration of Fujian Province. However, in 1894 Japan declared war toward Tiongkok that is ended after Maguan/Shimonoseki Treaty. This treaty then brought new chapter of colonizations in Taiwan for 50 years. Unfortunately, ater Japan is defeated in World War II, Taiwan falls back into Tiongkok supremacy.[8]
Taiwanese Movement for the Rights of Self Determination
Taiwanese movement in order to separate itself from Tiongkok at least could be traced from 1940s when there were two political poles of Communism under Mao Zedong and Nationalism group under Chiang Kai-shek. The rivalry of two poles remains communism as the winner. As Mao zedong gains power over the mainland of Tiongkok, in 1949 Chiang Kai-shek with his loyalists moved to taiwan, aimed to build different government system. But that was not the end of story, the removal of nationalist group to Taiwan in other other hand had triggered Mao Zedong to demolish Taipei.[9]
Appart from several conflicts since Chiang Kai-shek and the nationalist group went away from Tiongkok, there is one important thing that need to be stressed on, it is the efforts of Taiwan in order to gain recognition from other states. In spite of the fact that Taiwan have not just yet gained international recognition as sovereign state, but we could trace out Taiwan’s efforts in order to fulfill the standards or criterias of it. And the criterias are having permanent residents, territorial, government and the capabilities to cooperate with foreign countries.[10]
Permanent residents are the citizens which live in a particular country with the intention of staying in it for a long period of time. If we give a glance at Taiwan, then we will see the increasement of total population constantly until it reaches 23 million people in 2017.[11]
Regarding the territorial issues, Taiwan shares direct borders with South Tiongkok Sea and Philippine Sea. The total area of Taiwan is 35,980 km2 with a land area of 32,260 km2.[12] This means it has a clear and fixed territory. As for the government side, Taiwan is currently led by the country's first female President Tsai Ing-wen after winning elections in 2016. Furthermore, the Taiwan government is distributed into five branches called Yuan. There are Legislative Yuan (National Council), Executive Yuan, Judicial Yuan, Yuan of Information and Control Yuan.[13]
In the last criteria on how Taiwan can establish cooperation with other countries although the country has not been widely acknowledged, Taiwan is able to show its potential to gain cooperation for the sake of cooperation. One of Taiwan's strategy is to optimize bilateral diplomacy, especially in trading field. This strategy could be seen from Tsai Ing-wen's early repercussions this year to countries in South America with a mission of market expansion.[14] In line with Taiwan's strategy, the country that is then close enough to Taiwan is Japan.
Japan which has a historical closeness when 50 years colonized Taiwan, however today they look like close friends. Various fields even indicate the proximity, for example in the field or sector of cultural interaction, Japanese visitors in 2012 recorded originated from Taiwan at 17.5% while on the other side, the tourists in Taiwan in the same year amounted to 19.6% came from Japan.[15] Economic sectors also experienced similarities as Taiwan is Japan's fifth-largest trading partner, and Japan is Taiwan's second largest trading partner.[16]
Tiongkok Political Domination
Regardless of its criteria as a country, Taiwan is ultimately still faced with the political dominance of Tiongkok. Tiongkok, which today grows as a world power, that so far had a high bargaining power in the international eyes. It is these things which on the one hand must be understood by Taiwan as a reality in world politics. In line with the phenomenon of Chinese power, the author tries to describe how influential political domination can make it difficult for Taiwan to gain full independence, in the sense not only in the term of de facto but also de jure with international recognition.
Firstly, Japan's success in invading Tiongkok before World War II (WWII) and the release of the Shimonoseki Treaty as described earlier at this time is less able to stem Tiongkok's influence over Taiwan. Like Professor Wang Tieya, the Shimonoseki Covenant is a covenant which contains many of the values of inequality so that it contains only one-sided coercion.[17] On the other hand, Japan's defeat in World War II was also a concrete form of colonialization of Taiwan so that it automatically became an integral part of Tiongkok.
The second was the binding force of the Cairo Declaration on November 26, 1943. This declaration was the result of Roosevelt's successor (USA), Chruchill (British) and Jiang Jieshi (Tiongkok) to punish Japan for its brutal aggression implicating the outbreak of World War II. Then this declaration also resulted in Japan to return the territories that had been colonized, such as Manchuria, Formosa (Taiwan) and Pescadores to Tiongkok.[18]
Third, Tiongkok is recognized by international organizations and more than 160 countries. Since gaining independence in 1949 until now Tiongkok has been recognized and established diplomatic relations in more than 160 countries, therefore there are at least three inseparable requirements: there is only one Tiongkok in the world; The People's Government of the People's Republic of Tiongkok is the only legitimacy of Tiongkok; and that Taiwan is Tiongkok's territorial part.[19] Departing from Tiongkok's three requirements, it is clear that 160 countries that have established diplomatic ties with Tiongkok must first agree to the terms and that this reality will lead Taiwan to the difficulty of establishing legitimate diplomatic relations. In addition to the state, the United Nations is also doing the same thing to honor Tiongkok as a member of the organization by not recognizing Taiwan as its own country apart from Tiongkok territory.
Taiwanese Self Determination as a Paradox
Departing from two contradictory phenomenons – Taiwan’s self determination to be a sovereign state (internal and external) and Tiongkok's political dominance - it can be said that both phenomenons create a paradox. It is said to be paradoxical because in the case of Taiwan, self determination can not be carried out without a strong political will from the international side to acknowledge the existence of Taiwan, consequently, the position of this country becomes status quo. In other words, there is an over-determination in which China with great political power is able to hold Taiwan on de jure independence, and on the contrary Taiwan which controls the domestic government regulates its own country autonomously.
Finally, it can be said that self determination is not a single concept that can stand alone without the ability of international politics or the recognition of other countries. This is especially true when an area within a country that has already gained international political dominance.
[1] World Bank <http://data.worldbank.org/>
[2] https://literarydevices.net/paradox/ 30 July 2017
[3] More informations could be accessed on https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paradox and http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/paradox
[4] https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=IV-3&chapter=4&lang=en
[5] https://pesd.princeton.edu/?q=node/254
[6] https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/unts/volume%20999/volume-999-i-14668-english.pdf
[7] Shen, Jianming. 2000. Sovereignty, Statehood, Self-determination, adn the Issue of Taiwan. USA: International Law of American University. Hal 1105-1106
[8] Ibid, 1108-1109
[9] Leo Agung. 2012. Sejarah Asia Timur. Yogyakarta: Ombak. Hal 180-181
[10] Montevideo Convention, 1933
[11] http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/taiwan-population/ 1 August 2017
[12] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tw.html 1 August 2017
[13] http://ted.coe.wayne.edu/sse/wq/Taiwan/government.htm 1 August 2017
[14] The news of Taiwanese Presedent’s visiting to USA could be accessed on https://international.thenewslens.com/article/60612
[15] http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/taiwan/pdfs/japan-taiwan_relations.pdf 1 August 2017
[16] Ibid.
[17] Shen, Jianming. 2000. Sovereignty, Statehood, Self-determination, adn the Issue of Taiwan. USA: International Law of American University. Hal 1110
[18] Wilson Center, The Cairo Declaration: https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/122101.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e
[19] http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1282&context=auilr 1 August 2017