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Buy arms to maintain balance in the Strait

Immanuel Wallerstein, who put forward the theory of the "Modern World-System," wrote a piece a few years ago, maintaining that the reason that the world is leaning toward chaos is because of the disintegration of the military order of nations and the drift toward battles for hegemony.

Wallerstein predicted that the flames of such a conflict would gradually engulf the whole world.

However, academics will not necessarily agree with Wallerstein, and the "core nations" in his outline have never taken into account China in any regard.

Nevertheless,Wallerstein's take on "hegemonic war" was supported by the doubts recently expressed by US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

When the US published a report on the military power of China, it emphasized the fact that military spending on the People's Liberation Army has grown at a double-digit rate annually. What has perplexed Rumsfeld is that since China is not facing a threat from any other country, why does it need to increase its investment in the military at such a rate?

In the post-Cold War era, competition between superpowers continues, and China, as a rising economic powerhouse, is preparing itself to become a key player in the international arena.

Wallerstein is probably not familiar with the conflict between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and how they excelled in using the offer of talks as a tactical maneuver in an ongoing conflict.

For the CCP, the spirit of the proletarian struggle has remained unchanged for over 70 years. Now, riding on the back of the internationalization of markets, their ambition for domination has extended to encompass the whole world.

The Western world should no longer view China from the traditional perspective of "containment." Taiwan and the rest of the Asian countries should also seek to fathom the motive behind China's intentions to expand itself militarily and to consolidate its nationalistic goals.

Some may be confused over why any country would sacrifice its economic and social achievements for a war in which there will certainly be considerable human and material costs.

Wallerstein, however, deemed the military issue as a "universal cultural issue," which is the struggle of cultures, nations and peoples, demonstrated through military might.

China is rising to steal the spotlight of the world among a host of super-economies.

Regrettably, what has been revolving in the minds of Western nations is only the containment of China and how to protect themselves from it, while in Taiwan the arms procurement package is still being obstructed by opposition parties in the legislature.

We should understand that the importance of such an arms procurement bill is to maintain the military balance across the Taiwan Strait and it should be viewed as an important platform for Taiwan to establish itself as a nation. Only when military order is maintained across the Taiwan Strait can Taiwan's consciousness, local culture, ideals and lifestyle be recognized.

The opposition parties have almost always deemed the arms deal to be an arms race that only squanders taxpayer money, but they have failed to understand that a democratic government is attempting to protect the nation from disintegrating.

Jeremy Lu is the editor-in-chief of Mine Magazine.

TRANSLATED BY DANIEL CHENG
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