Information Proliferation
The undemocratic regime in Beijing still operates a top-down and centrally-controlled information flow. During the October 1998 ice-thawing mainland visit of Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫) who represented Taipei, Taiwan media reported 400 pieces of related news while its mainland counterpart reported only 40.
As the world enters the information age, it has become increasingly untenable for Beijing to maintain its tight grip on what its people know. In various areas around the mainland, dish-antennas have sprung up. The number of Internet users grew from 2.1 million in January of 1999 to almost nine million by 2000, instead of three million as previously estimated. The numbers are expected to now double every six months. Information that people elsewhere in the world are choosing their national leaders will constantly bombard the foundation of Beijing's dictatorial rule.
In Taiwan, people have long been used to an energetic press and an overabundant amount of information. In readying itself for the impact of the information age, the PRC remains far behind. The pressure on Beijing from the world turning electronic will only grow with time.
Across the Taiwan Strait, two systems are competing to outlast the other. Taiwan is a full-fledged democracy with a free market in an open society. The PRC is a non-democracy in a controlled society burdened with the shrinking but still sizable command economy (PRC state-owned enterprises as of now constitute about 40 percent of the whole economy). Moreover, in order for the PRC to maintain control from within, and to assert power from without, it still relies on coercion, and the threat to use brute force, all of which will become increasingly less tenable in an economically-interdependent world. The PRC is no constant. History will side with Taiwan.
Countries that rely on coercion internally have rarely been peace-loving in their external relations. Washington's ultimate solution of its current China policy dilemma is to cultivate the PRC over time as a democratic and prosperous friend of the US. To help achieve that goal, Taiwan is a necessity not a nuisance. Accordingly, Washington should promote Taiwan's democracy as a model of political reform in the PRC; protect Taiwan's security from the military threat of the People's Liberation Army; and preserve Taiwan's economy as a seed and catalyst for the mainland's sustained growth. The divisions in Washington's China policy can be unified. How? Protect Taiwan, and win over China.
Dr Lin Chong-pin (
RSS