Wed, Jan 07, 2004 page8

• Letter

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  Some won't fight for freedom

  A true friend comes through when a friend is in need. As Richard Kagan points out, Taiwan recently honored 30 foreign human rights activists for their contributions to democracy and independence (Letters, Jan. 2, page 8). I would like to salute those true friends of the Taiwanese.

  If Taiwan must defend itself alone, it will, as polls have indicated. Eighty percent of Taiwanese will fight if China invades Taiwan, and do not think the US will help.

  Shame on the UN, shame on those who should have taken a stand, and will not, and those who would only pay lip service but do not put their words into action. The saying goes: "If one is lost, all is lost." Pity those who will allow liberty to be lost for all of us.

  Kagan, Mike and Judy Thornberry and many others remind us that Taiwan will not be alone. Indeed, we shall overcome. The likes of Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Lien Chan (連戰), James Soong (宋楚瑜), and some people in the US and Japan, who think like the dictatorial, terrorizing Chinese communists, obviously still see Taiwan as a second-class world citizen that does not deserve the rights that they enjoy.

  Some say the hottest spot in hell is reserved for those who should have taken a position, and would not. For them I can only say: May God forgive them, for they know not what they do.

  Chen Ming-chung

  Chicago

  Chen should not fear China

  I couldn't agree more with the point Gerrit van der Wees makes in his editorial ("Instead of `five noes,' `three yeses,'" Jan. 2, page 8), that the conditions underpinning President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) five noes have all but disappeared, killed off entirely by China's bullying antics and by the steady increase of missiles aimed at Taiwan.

  I would like to add that these missiles are only a small part of China's strategy of swallowing Taiwan, and not even the most effective.

  In fact, even if all the missiles were dismantled, the diplomatic embargo would be the weapon in China's arsenal that the Taiwanese would have to fear most.

  Some Taiwanese might still believe that as long as they still have food on the table and as long as they still enjoy freedom, peace and stability, it doesn't matter that their own country is constantly humiliated and belittled by China in the international arena, or that their president is forbidden from visiting most countries.

  But this idea is wrong: China's diplomatic embargo will also hurt Taiwan's economy, and the free trade agreements with other countries is the most obvious example. Without free trade agreements with either large countries, like the US and Japan, or large trading blocs, like the EU or ASEAN, Taiwan's economy will be held to ransom by the Chinese dictators, and will become just a second Hong Kong, with all the imaginable consequences.

  This shows that the best way to defend Taiwan's status quo of de facto independence is to pursue de jure independence, and no matter how much the Chinese dictators huff and puff or how much the US or Japan choose to kowtow to China, Chen should not only go ahead with the planned referendum, but even better, he would widen its scope.

  George Dukes

  Sunderland, UK
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