On Tuesday, a 3m “Goddess of Democracy” statue was erected in Washington by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in memory of the more than 100 million people who have died at the hands of the world’s various communist governments.
Taiwan, through the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, donated US$1 million to the monument. In fact, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation chairman Lee Edwards said that Taiwan was among the most generous donors.
But as Taiwan’s representative to Washington Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) correctly pointed out, the worth of the monument is its significance, not its cost.
To this day, Taiwan remains a victim of communism — or more specifically, a victim of the Chinese Communist Party. In addition to the military threat that China poses with its more than 900 missiles aimed at Taiwan, the nation is a frequent victim of Beijing’s saber-rattling and incessant attempts to prevent Taiwan’s participation in the international community.
Edwards said the Washington monument — dedicated on the 20th anniversary of then US president Ronald Reagan’s famous Berlin speech, during which he said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”— was created not only to remember the millions who have died, but also to educate people about the worldwide impact of communism.
From our perspective, it is hoped that the erection of the statue will in some small way help to open the eyes of the numerous members of the international community who appear to harbor illusions about communist China. For, in their eagerness to gain a share of China’s massive market, foreign governments are often far too willing to curry favor with Beijing at the expense of democratic Taipei.
Continual compromise and kowtowing to China by the free nations of the world are not going to make Beijing’s bullies open up their society and embrace democracy.
This strategy has proven to be a complete and utter failure. Surely the most obvious way of encouraging the spread of democracy would be to support those democratic countries which stand up to the threat of communism?
At a conference held earlier this month in Prague, Czech Republic, on the subject of “Democracy and Security,” US President George W. Bush held up Taiwan as an example for the world to follow. He went on to make an indirect reference to the Martial Law era of the then Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government, contrasting it with the democracy Taiwan presently enjoys.
Indeed, Taiwan’s successful democratization stands as both its crowning achievement and its best means of protection against the threat posed by communist China.
And so, regardless of their political affiliation, Taiwan’s future leaders must put democracy first — because it is the most important of the many things that separate this country from China, where one quarter of the world’s population is enslaved by a communist dictatorship.
Father’s Day, as celebrated around the world, has its roots in the early 20th century US. In 1910, the state of Washington marked the world’s first official Father’s Day. Later, in 1972, then-US president Richard Nixon signed a proclamation establishing the third Sunday of June as a national holiday honoring fathers. Many countries have since followed suit, adopting the same date. In Taiwan, the celebration takes a different form — both in timing and meaning. Taiwan’s Father’s Day falls on Aug. 8, a date chosen not for historical events, but for the beauty of language. In Mandarin, “eight eight” is pronounced
In a recent essay, “How Taiwan Lost Trump,” a former adviser to US President Donald Trump, Christian Whiton, accuses Taiwan of diplomatic incompetence — claiming Taipei failed to reach out to Trump, botched trade negotiations and mishandled its defense posture. Whiton’s narrative overlooks a fundamental truth: Taiwan was never in a position to “win” Trump’s favor in the first place. The playing field was asymmetrical from the outset, dominated by a transactional US president on one side and the looming threat of Chinese coercion on the other. From the outset of his second term, which began in January, Trump reaffirmed his
Despite calls to the contrary from their respective powerful neighbors, Taiwan and Somaliland continue to expand their relationship, endowing it with important new prospects. Fitting into this bigger picture is the historic Coast Guard Cooperation Agreement signed last month. The common goal is to move the already strong bilateral relationship toward operational cooperation, with significant and tangible mutual benefits to be observed. Essentially, the new agreement commits the parties to a course of conduct that is expressed in three fundamental activities: cooperation, intelligence sharing and technology transfer. This reflects the desire — shared by both nations — to achieve strategic results within
It is difficult not to agree with a few points stated by Christian Whiton in his article, “How Taiwan Lost Trump,” and yet the main idea is flawed. I am a Polish journalist who considers Taiwan her second home. I am conservative, and I might disagree with some social changes being promoted in Taiwan right now, especially the push for progressiveness backed by leftists from the West — we need to clean up our mess before blaming the Taiwanese. However, I would never think that those issues should dominate the West’s judgement of Taiwan’s geopolitical importance. The question is not whether
RSS