Ambiguity not an option

China warned Taiwan again. This time, China's rubber-stamp National People's Congress has passed an "anti-secession" law requiring Taiwan to surrender its sovereignty peacefully or face invasion.

This coercive act, which aims to bring the Taiwanese to their knees, unilaterally changes the status quo across the Taiwan Strait and constitutes a serious challenge to the US' Taiwan Relations Act.

That law requires the US government to act should such coercion be exercised against Taiwan. In the past three decades, the US' "one China" policy, a strategically ambiguous ploy, has successfully put the China-Taiwan dispute on the back burner and maintained peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

However, the antagonism between an increasingly dictatorial China and a vibrantly democratic Taiwan has endangered this fuzzy strategy. To avoid a showdown, the US should immediately re-examine its "one China" policy.

One to deal with the problem is for the US to repeal its law, give up Taiwan and give in to China. The other way is for the US to reinforce the Taiwan Relations Act and accept the fact that Taiwan is a sovereign country and recognize it.

The latter is a just and moral choice that the US should adopt. Only then can the US make up for the tens of thousands of helpless Formosans who lost their lives to Chiang Kai-shek's (蔣介石) forces who, after World War II, occupied Taiwan by the order of then General Douglas MacArthur.

Only can Taiwan negotiate with China equally, peacefully and meaningfully. Otherwise, this dysfunctional ambiguity will result in the US and China taking a collision course.

The Taiwan issue will not go away. The US should accept its moral responsibility and face up to this relic conflict left by earlier generations. The choice is clear for the US. When it comes to freedom, democracy and liberty, there is no such thing as ambiguity.

Chi Yang
Ohio