Changing to maintain ‘status quo’By Tzou Jiing-wen 鄒景雯However the questions are phrased, opinion polls in Taiwan on cross-strait relations always result in a majority of respondents advocating maintaining the “status quo,” but what does that actually mean? In the past, maintaining the “status quo” meant Beijing refraining from taking aggressive action, and Taipei avoiding policies that might provoke Beijing. This allowed the two sides, on the surface at least, to maintain the pretense of an unbroken “status quo.”However, the rules of the old “status quo” have long since ceased to apply, and Beijing has lately taken to attacking the “status quo” in an attempt to reshape the wold order. If the Tsai administration’s policy is to maintain the cross-strait “status quo,” that would mean choosing to submit to Beijing’s logic. This is the kind of “status quo” Taiwan should hold on to.

Source: Taipei Times July 21, 2020 15:56 UTC