Democracy under threat
Democracy means the rule or power of the people in Greek. Most people nowadays consider the US as the paragon of its practice and it has been credited to the US Founding Fathers’ wisdom of respecting the rights of every individual, which is the fundamental principle of democracy.
Democracy fosters peace, prosperity and a harmonious society. Thus the country has been the major magnet to people from around the world pursuing freedom and happiness.
In contrast, autocracy — including communism — is established on the basis of arbitrary laws of minority group(s) backed by violent repression, utilizing military and armed police forces, censorship and fabricated irrational propaganda. The rulers are invariably above the laws and deny their own citizens basic human rights. China, North Korea, Syria, Iran, etc are perfect examples.
In less than two weeks, Taiwanese will go to the polls to elect a president and legislators. The choice is between becoming a free nation or a part of China, which is an intransigent autocracy; thus it is crucial to the future of Taiwan as a nation.
Ironically, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has been furtively leading the unsuspecting public to join China, which would result in the loss of Taiwan’s cherished democracy.
Therefore, it is incumbent upon the voters to understand the true nature of the KMT, led by President Ma Ying-Jeou (馬英九). It is actually comprised of impostors of Taiwanese who have consistently acted against democracy, even at this very moment. They advocate unifying Taiwan with China, yet strangely Ma’s daughters are US citizens. That raises a possibility that they are just selfish political swindlers.
Logically, free nations, including the US, should support Taiwan’s budding democracy. Unfortunately, the entire world has now become addicted to cheap Chinese labor and the financial gains seem more important than the advancement of democracy. Therefore, many free nations are appeasing China’s utterances of threats and support the KMT’s capitulation to China as it pretends to advance peaceful dialogue and eventual unification.
A dangerous threat to global free trade and the erosion of the foundation of Taiwan’s democracy has now surfaced thanks to trading with China. Before it is too late, the world must carefully evaluate the massive loss of capital, manufacturing jobs and even highly advanced vital technologies at the hands of the unfair trade practices of the state-controlled Chinese commerce.
In a nutshell, the wealth of democratic nations has recently been hijacked by China, which uses cheap labor incorporated in its well-calculated “united front” strategy. It is now threatening the very survival of the world economy and democracy. Furthermore, its vastly upgraded armed forces are threatening Asia and beyond.
Taiwanese must rise to the occasion and defeat the KMT, which is bringing Taiwan into the Chinese autocratic fold. The free world must wake up and support Taiwan in its quest to advance democracy. Only then the people of China will realize its value, establish a free nation, then abolish the brutal colonial occupations of Tibet and Xinjiang. When China becomes a free nation, it will be a major step forward in realizing the seemingly unattainable dream of the UN.
Samuel Yang,
Arizona;
Kuochih Hong,
Michigan;
Bindon Chang,
New York
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