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Updated Wednesday, January 21, 2009 10:22 am TWN, By Frank Ching, Special to The China Post

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Should we accept China's protection against pirates?

Somali pirates off the coast of Africa are transforming geopolitical relationships in East Asia. First, China decided to take the unprecedented step of dispatching its navy far beyond its coast into the Gulf of Aden to protect Chinese shipping.

Now, Japan is drafting legislation to provide a legal framework for it to dispatch warships abroad on anti-piracy missions, despite its pacifist constitution.

But perhaps the most profound ramifications of these ostensibly anti-piracy movements is the impact they will have on Taiwan and its relationship with China, which claims the island as part of its territory.

The Chinese government has said that its naval vessels will provide convoy assistance for Taiwan ships as well as those of the mainland and Hong Kong. This has created a sensitive, and dangerous, situation for Taiwan, which insists on its own sovereignty.

Thus, it was extremely awkward for Taiwan when China announced last week that among the first beneficiaries of China's protection was a Taiwan-owned tanker, the Formosa Product Cosmos, owned by the Formosa Plastics Marine Corporation, as it sailed through the Gulf of Aden.

Taiwan, whose formal name is the Republic of China, does not want to be seen as under the sovereign protection of the mainland, known as the People's Republic of China.

The following day, Chao Chien-min, vice chairman of the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), announced at a news conference that the Taiwan government had not been involved in arranging for the Chinese navy's escort of the ship. He said that the tanker was registered in Liberia and was rented out to a South Korean company, and so should not be considered a Taiwan ship.

China last month offered to help protect Taiwan ships fearful of coming under attack from Somali pirates but, Chao said, Taiwan is not prepared to accept China's offer. In fact, Taiwan has declined to set up any mechanism for Taiwanese ships to request help from the Chinese navy.

No doubt, Taiwan is fearful that if it were to accept such a service, the international community would in time come to think of the island as part of China, like Hong Kong, and its nationals as being subject to Chinese jurisdiction as well as its protection.

After all, acceptance of Chinese protection would make Taiwan appear little more than a ward of China in the eyes of the world.

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