Going gets tough

It is about 12 years ago now that I attended an art class with some kids from Taiwan at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California. I liked them, but what struck me the most in my interactions with them was a latent discomfort over whether we, here in the US, would be there for them if the going got tough with the Chinese. I think we have had a president in George W. Bush who has indicated we will be.

Nevertheless, it pains me to hear of stories coming out of Taiwan of rapprochement with the government in Beijing. What is a win-win outcome that allows a dictatorship in Beijing to perpetuate itself?

The Taiwanese have the right to choose their own course, but if they choose to sell their souls to Beijing with such offers as reduced tuition and whatever other inducements that a totalitarian government could make to them, over being a free people able to chart their own course, then my obligation to the Taiwanese, as an American, will be deemed paid in full.

To those kids back in Orange County, my statement is, "We will have done what we could, but good or bad the people of Taiwan will get the sort of government they deserve, if the Chinese thing is the choice they choose to make.

Steven Edwards
Palm Springs, California