I recently reread the biography of Heinrich Theodor Boll (1917-1985). Boll was a German poet and novelist and the 1972 Nobel Prize in Literature winner. In my notebook, I have written down some of his words, which serve as a caution.
He said that all he saw when he looked at where the state existed was corrupt power, and that the spoiled remnants of a higher morality were maintained solely through noise and bluster.
At the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) 19th National Congress, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who lived through the Cultural Revolution, assumed a status akin to that of an emperor and vowed to lead China to become a global superpower.
The CCP has never stopped its verbal intimidation and saber rattling toward Taiwan.
Born in the same year as Vladimir Lenin’s revolution, Boll lived in a Europe ravaged by Nazi Germany. Through his literary works, cultural discourses and social perspectives, he held up a mirror to the times in which he lived.
Nazi Germany once appeared invincible in the war in Europe, but everyone knows how things ended. Although Boll’s warning is based on his own nation’s situation, he could just as well have been writing about today’s China.
However, with some intellectuals fleeing into exile, how many Chinese can afford to tell the truth about their own nation?
China, a nation that has been through the humiliation of defeat at the hands of foreign powers in the later years of the Qing Empire, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) rule and the establishment of Communist China, knows the dangers of being weak. Now that it is strong, it is failing to restrain itself and risks making the same mistakes as the powers that once oppressed it.
Taiwanese, having been subjected to long-term martial law under the KMT, know well the way in which the KMT and CCP wield power. Some might have had high expectations of Communist China, but now, with the exception of those who have hidden agendas, they should have woken up.
China wants to destroy the Republic of China (ROC) and annex Taiwan in the name of “reunification,” but has no idea why Taiwanese, who welcomed the “motherland” in 1946, would seek to establish a nation that is independent of China.
It is important to be a nation, but being a nation brings dangers. The former part of this statement applies to Taiwan; the latter applies to China. Nazi Germany’s expansion, aggression and Final Solution belong to the latter, as does the Japanese Empire.
To change the world’s impression of China, the CCP should practice good governance at home, with an emphasis on the universal values of a civilized nation.
Since Taiwan respects that the People’s Republic of China represents China, Beijing should renew its international image by letting Taiwan peacefully and democratically change the name ROC, which semantically and ideologically transgresses China, and move forward with a new name, forging a new history of two independent nations.
This would allow Xi to go down in history as being a good leader.
No nation should become the kind that Boll describes.
Taiwan and China should become normal nations and prioritize the well-being of their people, contributing to the development of world civilization.
Neither Taiwan nor China is a normal nation — the confrontation between oppression and resistance causes both sides to strain in vain and waste resources. Let a nation become a community of goodness — Taiwan and China should become friendly states.
Lee Min-yung is a poet.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
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