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Letters: Awaiting a strong message

Dear President George W. Bush: Soon you will meet with President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), dictator of China. It is important to me, that as my president, and to hundreds of millions of others in the US, Taiwan, Tibet, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Japan, China and around the globe, that you represent us in your meeting with Hu as a beacon of the free, with the strength and conviction that comes from certainty of purpose and path, and from confidence in certain truths we know to be "self-evident" and undeniable.

If you ever should feel even the slightest bit "outnumbered" in the heart of tyranny on foreign shores, please remember that we as a multitude also believe in these eternal truths, and that our belief will never waver.

Diplomacy will require certain comity, politeness and collegiality, but allegiance to these truths must shine, and even a handshake with a dictator must show the determination of what is right over what is not.

The lives and livelihoods, liberty and happiness, and hope of billions rides on that handshake and your determination. In that moment, Hu must fully understand that the tenure of tyranny is short, and the power of democracy, which you represent, is unlimited and overwhelming.

I trust you to relay both this message and this impression, with your strength and determination, and your dedication to these ideals we labor to bring to the oppressed peoples of the world.

I hope you are not pressed to speak ill of democracy in Taiwan, or Hong Kong, or of the hope of freedom of worship in Tibet, and if you are pressed, you call upon that strength to resist.

None of the tens of millions in Taiwan or Tibet should be sacrificed in the name of diplomacy, for comity with evil is evil itself.

I know you are committed to freedom. You have pronounced it many, many times, often in the face of adversity, and when you have, my heart has soared. It is important, and fitting, for the US to be in the forefront of the quest for liberty, as the seeds of democracy were planted on our shores.

I would like you to know that there are millions in Taiwan, Tibet, Hong Kong and China who look to the US to bring a strong message to Beijing about human rights, freedom of speech and religion and about our unrelenting opposition to China's determination to exterminate those it deems a threat, including all those in China who deign to speak out against tyranny and oppression, and all those who yearn for freedom in Tibet and Taiwan. There is no room on Earth for such views, in particular those held by a nation determined to become a world power.

You have met the Dalai Lama recently. If you talked with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), you would know the support that exists in Taiwan for freedom -- not the yearning for conflict or controversy, but only to be free.

That China would prevent this or try to prevent you from even speaking with either man, is evidence of the cowardice and tyranny implicit in the Chinese dictatorship.

I ask you to be mindful of these things as you represent the US and freedom itself.

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