Restricting Political Rights? A Gov’t that Only Knows How to Threaten the People with a Club

 Restricting Political Rights? A Gov’t that Only Knows How to Threaten the People with a Club

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

September 23, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

The other side of the Strait has, since September 1^st, officially issued resident cards for residents of Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan who work, study and do business on the Mainland, allowing them to enjoy similar treatment for living as Mainland people. Taiwan residents on the Mainland occasionally called for "equal treatment"; now they, however, suddenly heard that their own government, surprisingly, put on a straight face, demanding "restricting their political rights," leaving many in surprise and bewilderment!

Political rights embrace a wide scope, principally including serving in the government, running for public office, voting in elections, recalls, initiatives, and referendums, as well as enjoying rights by virtue of citizenship; these are protected by the Constitution. The Cabinet wants to restrict the political rights of these people; although the scope is still being pondered, we are afraid, it will be about certain rights, such as their right to serve in the government, the right to vote, or the right to run for public office. However, would applying for a resident card equate to committing a crime, and must the applicant be deprived of the most important political rights as a citizen?

Political rights also include certain freedoms, such as freedom of abode, freedom of travel or freedom of speech, as well as the freedom of writing and publication, freedom of religious beliefs, freedom of assembly and association, etc. In fact, to penalize our citizens who apply for the Mainland resident cards would be tantamount to indirectly restricting the people’s rights of abode and travel. And if really going to the extent of depriving such freedoms, or as some have speculated, the government would deprive these applicants of the right to use the National Health Insurance coverage for medical care, then, we are afraid, it would involve the deprivation of people’s economic and social rights, and even, it may be said, it would be tantamount to creating a new political pariah caste!

Those who are most likely to apply for resident cards are Taiwan businessmen on the Mainland, and in fact they are an important group who have created a trade surplus of tens of billions of US dollars every year for Taiwan. Now if just for applying for resident cards, they are treated with a cane, restricting their political rights, wouldn’t it be equivalent to expelling capital and offering an economic army to the other side of the Strait with raised hands? Faced with this new measure of Beijing, the Tsai government has been mired in political linear thinking; while it couldn’t wait to crack its whip to engage in political countermeasures, it forgot that the target of punishment was not Beijing, but Taiwanese who left their homes. Restricting their political rights could directly push them to the other side of the Strait, but it could not ask them to abandon their stage on the other side of the Strait.

Even if they have obtained a Mainland resident card, it is no different from an ROC citizen holding a US green card; the Tsai government could so favor one over the other, treating green card holders as honored guests, while denigrating Mainland resident card holders to second-class citizens.

One resident card is both a competition between cross-Strait systems, and also a race between governments across the Strait to win the hearts of the people, but absolutely not a zero-sum cross-Strait game. If the democratic life on which the people of Taiwan pride the most should be subverted by a resident card overnight, we are afraid, it must be something that the saber-wielding Tsai government has failed to consider in its pondering!

Attachment : none