Mao Zedong (毛澤東) said he would solve the Taiwan problem in 100 years. Well, in some respects we could say the problem has been solved. Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his KMT have passed up any chance of invading China. We (the US) refused to support his plans to attack in the 1950s. In Taiwan, the KMT is in decline as an increasingly literate public learns to practice democracy.
Democracy conjures up many nightmares to traditional Chinese. We must understand that undermining the Confucian model instills such fears. Taiwan is very Chinese. Mao simplified the written language. Taiwan kept the old writing system. Taiwan is a mix of the very old China and the most progressive Chinese culture in the world.
All this is to say that there are mixed feelings about losing the world's first Chinese democracy. Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger sold the Taiwanese down the river during former US president Richard Nixon's reign. Prior to that the Japanese ruled the island for quite a long time. It was their garden.
Currently, there is a native-born Taiwanese running the island. Taiwan wants to keep the status quo. Those out-of-town KMT people have a different view. So do they really have a right to determine Taiwan's future? Or is it about time the Taiwanese took over those chores? In view of the economic miracle their democracy has wrought, one would concur.
Why does China continue to demand inclusion in its communist empire? Well, if we look at the miracles Taiwanese businessmen have contributed to the economy we can understand much better. Now economic zones exist in all the major markets there.
Bill Parkhurst
USA
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