Natale H. Bellocchi
台灣、美國和中國的關係已引起許多學術分析探討,這是可理解、甚至值得稱讚的,因為美中台關係複雜,可有不同的解讀和觀察,過去已有許多論文對於了解這三國之間的關係發展做出寶貴貢獻。然而,不時會有學者發表脫離現實、缺乏了解且天真的分析,布魯斯.季禮( Bruce Gilley)這篇刊登於「外交事務」二○一○年一/二月號、名為「不太危急的海峽」(Not so Dire Straits)一文就是一例。
季禮的基本論點是,目前台灣與中國之間的「和解」,開啟了台灣「芬蘭化」之路,也為美國允許台灣從目前處於美國戰略軌道內,移往中國影響力範圍下鋪路。季禮錯誤臆測之處在於,認為這個過程終將導致中國民主化。
美中台關係 季禮認知錯誤
季禮認知錯誤的不只一點,礙於此文篇幅,只能談其中幾個重點。先從「芬蘭化」說起,文中說芬蘭與蘇聯達成的協議「在當時廣受芬蘭國內支持」。問題是,當時的芬蘭人已經被俄羅斯人拿著槍指著腦袋了,還有很多選擇嗎?
第二點是歷史的精確性。季禮寫道,一九四九年「台灣和中國變成分離的政治實體……」關於這一點,事實是,當時是日本殖民地的台灣已經是個分離政治實體有五十多年了,在那之前,頂多只能說中國帝制政府對這個島嶼有一點影響力,問題是在落敗的國民黨被趕出中國、到台灣落腳,把這裡當做佔領領土般對待時出現。
文中另一個「國際社會多半接受北京所宣稱擁有台灣領土主權」的說法也不正確,這種說法只對如辛巴威、蘇丹等親北京政權成立,美國或其他西方國家僅「注意」或「認知」北京的說法,但立場是:這是個未解決議題,這個島嶼的未來需要依照一九五二年舊金山和約決定。
該篇文章最嚴重的謬論是,認為張伯倫式(譯按:張伯倫為二戰前的英國首相,對希特勒採取姑息政策)的姑息中國對台灣問題的所作所為,將能讓崛起中的中國民主化、和平化,不會讓中國變本加厲。這種說法存有根本上的誤解:讓步不會讓高壓政權變溫和,只會養大他們的胃口。犧牲辛苦贏來的台灣活躍民主成就,任其漂向一個不確定、混沌不明的「原則性中立」角色會是根本的錯誤,季禮希望我們相信,這種「芬蘭式」地位和如他所說「懦弱地默許順服」,兩者之間是有不同的。像中國這樣的威權強權,只要略施手段就能除去其統治路上任何的反對力量,西藏和東突都是相當明顯的例證。
對中國讓步 只會養大胃口
季禮還認為,中國對台灣立場的說法,動機出於「民族主義……和更大範疇的國恥和衰弱論述」的成分較少,而與地緣戰略因素比較有關係:因為台灣地理位置優勢使其具有戰略重要性,將其納入影響範圍可強化中國海軍投射實力,從而擴大對西太平洋影響力。
他這一點論述是正確的,台灣極具戰略重要性,這不只是對日本、南韓,對美國在東亞和亞太地區利益而言也是如此。正是這個理由,美國日前明智地決定,提供台灣這個長期的朋友、盟友反飛彈科技。
從台灣人民觀點來說,傾中意味著失去他們辛苦爭取來的自由和民主。美國在全球、特別是東亞地區的威信,必定仰賴堅持我們所擁護的基本原則,允許自由民主的台灣落入威權中國的影響力範圍下,是令人無法接受的。
因此,與其讓台灣「芬蘭化」,美國反而應該尋求一個與台灣更堅強交往關係的政策,協助台灣自衛對抗好戰的鄰居、簽署自由貿易協定,以及加強美國與台灣政經關係。只有把台灣帶進國際社會之中,才能達成東亞的真正穩定。
(國際新聞中心管淑平譯)
(作者白樂崎先生曾任美國在台協會理事主席,現為本報團顧問)
Not So Dire Straits
Bruce Gilley
January/February 2010 Print Send to friend
Summary:
As Taipei drifts further into Beijing’s sphere of influence, the United States must decide whether to continue arming Taiwan as a bulwark against a rising China or step back to allow the Taiwanese people to determine their own future.
BRUCE GILLEY is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Portland State University's Mark O. Hatfield School of Government and the author of The Right to Rule: How States Win and Lose Legitimacy.
Since 2005, Taiwan and China have been moving into a closer economic and political embrace -- a process that accelerated with the election of the pro-détente politician Ma Ying-jeou as Taiwan's president in 2008. This strengthening of relations presents the United States with its greatest challenge in the Taiwan Strait since 1979, when Washington severed ties with Taipei and established diplomatic relations with Beijing.
In many ways, the current thaw serves Taipei's interests, but it also allows Beijing to assert increasing influence over Taiwan. As a consensus emerges in Taiwan on establishing closer relations with China, the thaw is calling into question the United States' deeply ambiguous policy, which is supposed to serve both Taiwan's interests (by allowing it to retain its autonomy) and the United States' own (by guarding against an expansionist China). Washington now faces a stark choice: continue pursuing a militarized realist approach -- using Taiwan to balance the power of a rising China -- or follow an alternative liberal logic that seeks to promote long-term peace through closer economic, social, and political ties between Taiwan and China.
A TALE OF TWO DÉTENTES
After the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949, Taiwan and mainland China became separate political entities, led, respectively, by Chiang Kai-shek's defeated nationalist party, the Kuomintang (KMT), and Mao Zedong's victorious Chinese Communist Party (CCP). For nearly three decades, Chiang and Mao harbored rival claims to the whole territory of China. Gradually, most of the international community came to accept Beijing's claims to territorial sovereignty over Taiwan and a special role in its foreign relations. By 1972, when U.S. President Richard Nixon visited China, 69 percent of the United Nations' member states had already severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of relations with China.
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