After trying strategies such as propaganda attacks and military threats to block Taiwan's democratization, and having seen all of them prove ineffective, China has recently resorted to a different strategy -- internationalizing the Taiwan issue.
Under the banner of opposing Taiwanese independence, Beijing is in effect trying to deprive Taiwanese people of the right to hold referendums, rewrite the Constitution and become their own masters.
A Washington Post report published on Jan. 2 pointed out that a new national identity has emerged in Taiwan after more than 50 years of democratic advances. Politicians in major Western nations, however, have apparently failed to sense this change. Therefore, China's strategy of mobilizing international forces to "besiege" Taiwan has proven effective.
US President George W. Bush, the EU and Katsuhisa Uchida, director of the Taipei Office of Japan's Interchange Association, have expressed strong concern over Taiwan's plan to hold a "defensive referendum."
Predictably, other small nations, especially some in the Asia-Pacific region, will express their concerns as well. But the expression of delight on Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's (
Isn't it farcical for Western leaders to end up becoming protagonists in a play directed by authoritarian China?
Taiwan should understand the difficulties that these leaders face but cannot mention. I believe they have not given up their faith in democracy; rather, they are only perfunctorily satisfying China's demands.
Nations with an important interest in the Asia-Pacific region care about peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. If we look back at wars after World War II, either the expansion of autocratic nations led to military conflicts with democratic nations, or autocracies waged war against one another. It was extremely rare for democracies to resort to military force against other democracies to resolve problems.
For Western nations to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait, the key lies in helping China peacefully transform itself into a democracy. Taiwan's democratic achievements serve as the best contrast to and containment of China's authoritarian rule.
For Western nations to isolate Taiwan as it democratizes, and give in to China's military buildup and meet its demands in exchange for temporary peace, would be an appeasement strategy similar to the one Neville Chamberlain adopted to feed Adolf Hitler's arrogance. This ultimately would bring disaster to democracies.
To a certain degree, the US and Japan have accommodated themselves to China because they need help from China on North Korea's nuclear problem. But they should realize that Beijing is on much closer terms with North Korea than with the US and Japan. They should not be bewildered by China's facade of sincerity.
In an interview published in the Chinese newspaper Global Times on Dec. 29, Chinese military expert Jiang Zhijun (
Apparently, Beijing has an ulterior motive in its unification mission. If it occupies Taiwan, the vast Pacific Ocean will be its next goal. China will target not only Japan but also the US.
Paul Lin is a political commentator based in New York.
Translated by Jackie Lin
The image was oddly quiet. No speeches, no flags, no dramatic announcements — just a Chinese cargo ship cutting through arctic ice and arriving in Britain in October. The Istanbul Bridge completed a journey that once existed only in theory, shaving weeks off traditional shipping routes. On paper, it was a story about efficiency. In strategic terms, it was about timing. Much like politics, arriving early matters. Especially when the route, the rules and the traffic are still undefined. For years, global politics has trained us to watch the loud moments: warships in the Taiwan Strait, sanctions announced at news conferences, leaders trading
The saga of Sarah Dzafce, the disgraced former Miss Finland, is far more significant than a mere beauty pageant controversy. It serves as a potent and painful contemporary lesson in global cultural ethics and the absolute necessity of racial respect. Her public career was instantly pulverized not by a lapse in judgement, but by a deliberate act of racial hostility, the flames of which swiftly encircled the globe. The offensive action was simple, yet profoundly provocative: a 15-second video in which Dzafce performed the infamous “slanted eyes” gesture — a crude, historically loaded caricature of East Asian features used in Western
Is a new foreign partner for Taiwan emerging in the Middle East? Last week, Taiwanese media reported that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) secretly visited Israel, a country with whom Taiwan has long shared unofficial relations but which has approached those relations cautiously. In the wake of China’s implicit but clear support for Hamas and Iran in the wake of the October 2023 assault on Israel, Jerusalem’s calculus may be changing. Both small countries facing literal existential threats, Israel and Taiwan have much to gain from closer ties. In his recent op-ed for the Washington Post, President William
A stabbing attack inside and near two busy Taipei MRT stations on Friday evening shocked the nation and made headlines in many foreign and local news media, as such indiscriminate attacks are rare in Taiwan. Four people died, including the 27-year-old suspect, and 11 people sustained injuries. At Taipei Main Station, the suspect threw smoke grenades near two exits and fatally stabbed one person who tried to stop him. He later made his way to Eslite Spectrum Nanxi department store near Zhongshan MRT Station, where he threw more smoke grenades and fatally stabbed a person on a scooter by the roadside.
RSS