George Yeo recently attended the Asia-Pacific Forward Forum in Taipei, where he sat on a panel with Taiwan's Foreign Minister Lin Yongle. In the audience were Ma Ying-jeou, Xiao Wanchang, and Jiang Yi-huah - the former president, vice president, and Premier respectively.
Yeo suggested the idea of a "Chinese commonwealth", a tentative step towards reunification between China and Taiwan that allows wiggle room for political maneuvers on both sides. He argued that the US would eventually find it impossible to defend Taiwan as the military balance continued to shift in favour of China, and then reunification would be forced upon Taiwan through China's military might.
The Fine Line between Genius and Insanity
Yeo is neither crazy nor a genius. But he does need to get his head out of the clouds.
The idea of a Chinese Commonwealth is not revolutionary. It has been raised by many academics before in the past, including former Deputy Defense Minister Lin Chong Pin, whose views were featured in this 2017 Straits Times article.
More recently in 2022, former vice president of Taiwan Annette Lu promoted the same idea, and was featured in the New York Times.
Beat the NY Times paywall here
Reality Check
On paper, the idea makes sense, if one can imagine that both Beijing and Taiwan are moving towards reunification with honest hearts, in a celebration of Chinese culture. They are not. Taiwan is steeped in fear of losing their sovereignty and being subsumed back into China. China (and Xi Jinping) cannot wait for their rebellious province to come back home obediently.
As pro-China media outlets race to publish Yeo's comments, Singapore can only hope that Yeo has not strained our relationships with the US and Taiwan.
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