Blackmail is often the currency of dictatorship and tyranny. So it is with Beijing. The prevailing rate on relations with Beijing is measured in political distance from Taiwan. The more willing a nation is to distance itself from Taiwan, and adopt the "one China" mantra, the better its odds in economic relations with Beijing, as well as the prospects of making money in China. No mantra, no business.
However, the currency used in Beijing's dealings with the Vatican is different, because, frankly, the money isn't as important to the Vatican. It doesn't need a new "trading partner," it is not interested in importing cheap Chinese goods, or establishing a line of new factories there for producing cheap products, or selling Bibles to a billion Chinese (the Vatican would probably donate those). The traditional blackmail doesn't work for Beijing.
Therefore, Beijing has moved to Plan B, blackmail involving the souls of Chinese Catholics, the lure of more than 1 billion unconverted. Hong Kong officials were reporting before the Pope's funeral that the Vatican was willing to cut ties with Taiwan in order to make progress with Beijing on the plight of millions of Catholics in China. The comments were profoundly disturbing, as though the concept of throwing away 23 million Taiwanese for the sake of Chinese Catholics was blackmail worthy of consideration.
But if the funeral of the Pope showed anything, it was that Beijing's blackmail hasn't affected those who do not quail in response to economic and political terrorism. The president of Taiwan attended, and watched ceremonies from the front row. No representative from China was there, no news of the funeral, no commemoration, no real acknowledgement of the Pope's death in China. Beijing truly believes it "can fool all of the people all of the time," but its suppression of all news in China of the Pope's death, and of the weeks-long discussion of his life by people in almost every corner of the world, only highlights how truly isolated, strange and cowardly the Communist regime in Beijing is.
One can only hope the world did not miss the significance of the Pope's unwillingness to yield to Beijing's blackmail, Plan A or B, and even in death, his courage to defy communist dictatorship and tyranny held true. If the Vatican could stand up and say "no" to Beijing in the face of blackmail over the lives and suffering of millions of people whose religious freedom is trampled in China, why then cannot the rest of the world, who pretend to support "human rights" and oppose tyranny and oppression, do the same?
In the beginning, the currency of the UN was freedom and human rights. Today, that currency has become "political correctness," and the exchange rate is frozen at human suffering, appeasement and timid expediency by member nations who check their bank accounts instead of the UN Charter. So long as the UN (and its membership of sycophants) is willing to stand back and watch as communist nations like China and North Korea terrorize and bully in the name of their "motherland" and "the Communist Party," and as long as they are appeased as they continue to oppress and suppress literally one-sixth of the entire world population, there will be no peace. Peace is not the currency of tyrants and dictators; they do not appreciate it, and they do not comprehend its value. It is anathema to them because it represents their own demise.
One can only hope the Vatican's defiance of Beijing's blackmail will be the first in a series of bodies standing up to the tyranny of Beijing, saying "no" to its blackmail against Taiwan, Tibet, religious freedom, liberty and democracy. Once can only hope that the world will say "never again" to the blackmail of tyranny, sacrificing of hope, freedom and lives of tens of millions of Taiwanese for a bigger share of China's market. Simple advice to those doing business with China in the currency of blackmail: just say "no," because once blackmail by tyrants has succeeded, it will never stop.
Lee Long Hwa
United States
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