It has been suggested that the US should stop defending democratic Taiwan from China’s military in return for the cancelation of the US$1.14 trillion in US debt that Beijing holds. That so harebrained a scheme made it onto the op-ed page of the New York Times on Nov. 10 shows that there are those who subscribe wholeheartedly to the myth that with China looming ever larger on the horizon, Taiwan is assuming less of a strategic importance. Nothing could be further from the truth.
That China is on course to becoming a superpower is not the issue at all. The issue is that if this super-powerful China of tomorrow thinks and acts anywhere near the way it does today, it is on a collision course with the interests of the rest of the world — and, as we are already beginning to see today, in such a situation the rest of the world could very easily come out the loser.
China does not play by the same rules as everybody else. It cheats on everything, bullies everybody and demands that everyone accept the lies it peddles as truth.
Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) languishes in jail — as do many of China’s noblest spirits who have dared to fight illegally polluted lakes, censorship, official corruption, and the like.
The line we hear from China’s leaders, not too different from that uttered by dictators everywhere, is that these reformers and protesters are seeking to impose alien ideas and norms that have no place in Chinese society or culture. Taiwan’s existence as a free-market economy, thriving democracy and two-party political system — a sovereign and independent Chinese republic whose people enjoy all the basic human rights and freedoms as those who live in the US or Western Europe — demonstrates that the rhetoric of the Chinese Communist Party is a lie and points the way for an alternative approach to the development of China. For this reason, Taiwan matters.
It is very much in the world’s and in the US’ strategic interest to protect Taiwan’s right to determine its own destiny. Whether Taiwan becomes part of China or not is much less important than ensuring any such decision is made by Taiwanese alone. This is a scenario that China fears even more than Taiwanese independence — that an example might be made and the idea might spread to the far-flung corners of the People’s Republic of China — that power can, should and deserves to come from the people themselves. This is an idea that needs to be embraced if the culture, economy and political system of a future Chinese superpower is to more closely resembles that of a global leader. Only then can Beijing hope to be a partner and friend to the US rather than simply a more powerful, selfish and conniving adversary than it is today.
In this scenario Taiwan’s strategic importance is out of all proportion to its size and the marginal international role it plays today. Like a catalyst, Taiwan has the power to change everything around it.
In this context, the idea of ditching Taiwan for money is absurd. By allowing the idea to be aired in a public forum, the New York Times did us all a wonderful service by showing the festering depths of economic determinism that have corrupted the US.
Were the US to ditch Taiwan, it would be ditching just about the only thing it has left — its core values. Because of the narrow-minded focus on material gain on the part of more than a few, the US has already ditched its own economic future and that of the free world, not to mention the future of the promising young men and women pouring out of its universities and universities everywhere. It has thrown away jobs and with them its competitive edge in so many manufacturing technologies, and even done away with the pretense that it is a real democracy, as the bankers it bailed out spend billions of dollars of public money handed over meekly by elected officials in pursuit of their own selfish interests.
It is time Americans as a whole stood back and took a look at their currency. The faces on it are those of the founding fathers and former presidents George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln. The vision of these men, not money, is what made the US great. This is a vision that demands the US helps not just the disenfranchised and downtrodden in China and elsewhere in the world, but also those at home, as represented by the demands of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
In Asia, Taiwan stands in a unique way for everything the US’ founding fathers believed in and it deserves US support, today and in the future.
William Stimson is an American writer who has lived in Taiwan for nine years.
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
Can US dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Beijing help avert a Taiwan Strait crisis? Or is US President Joe Biden playing into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hands? With America preoccupied with the wars in Europe and the Middle East, Biden is seeking better relations with Xi’s regime. The goal is to responsibly manage US-China competition and prevent unintended conflict, thereby hoping to create greater space for the two countries to work together in areas where their interests align. The existing wars have already stretched US military resources thin, and the last thing Biden wants is yet another war.
As Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu’s party won by a landslide in Sunday’s parliamentary election, it is a good time to take another look at recent developments in the Maldivian foreign policy. While Muizzu has been promoting his “Maldives First” policy, the agenda seems to have lost sight of a number of factors. Contemporary Maldivian policy serves as a stark illustration of how a blend of missteps in public posturing, populist agendas and inattentive leadership can lead to diplomatic setbacks and damage a country’s long-term foreign policy priorities. Over the past few months, Maldivian foreign policy has entangled itself in playing
A group of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers led by the party’s legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (?) are to visit Beijing for four days this week, but some have questioned the timing and purpose of the visit, which demonstrates the KMT caucus’ increasing arrogance. Fu on Wednesday last week confirmed that following an invitation by Beijing, he would lead a group of lawmakers to China from Thursday to Sunday to discuss tourism and agricultural exports, but he refused to say whether they would meet with Chinese officials. That the visit is taking place during the legislative session and in the aftermath