Greta, speak up for Taiwan
As readers of this newspaper know, due to the geopolitical pressure from the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing, there is one tiny democratic country — Taiwan — that has every year been excluded from participating at the annual international climate change conference, no matter in what country the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change takes place.
This year it was Poland. Next year, COP25 is to take place in Chile from Nov. 11 to Nov. 22.
With headlines like “Teenage activist inspires school strikes to protest climate change after telling leaders they are ‘not mature enough,’” describing the way the brave Greta Thunberg has spoken out about the need to change the way politicians the world over have been immaturely dealing with climate change issues, would it not be a shock to see Greta stand in front of a microphone next year and speak directly to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and ask him to stop being so “immature” and allow Taiwan to join the international climate talks next year in Chile — if not as a direct participant, then at least as an official observer, with proper press passes for journalists from Taiwan covering the event in South America.
As Taiwan is not a member of the UN, it has been blocked by China from engaging in the many organizations and institutions of the UN, including meetings related to the annual COP climate conferences.
Taiwan was not allowed to take part in the COP24 in Poland this month, although a Taiwanese delegation of more than 60 representatives from different government agencies flew to Katowice to meet with participants on the “sidelines” of the conference.
During the conference, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs placed advertisements on buses and trams bearing the words “Combating climate change, Taiwan can help” to showcase the nation’s diplomatic “soft power.”
COP24 attracted about 18,000 “official” delegates from around the world, but sadly, Taiwan was not allowed to directly participate in the annual conference once again.
Thunberg could use her international speaking platform to tell China’s leader: “Xi Jinping, stop being immature. Tear down your walls of prejudice and bias. Let Taiwan in for the next round of COP talks in 2019.”
Greta could say, for all the world to hear: “I am annoyed by the UN’s action of refusing to allow Taiwan to even have observer status, due to pressure from communist China. Leaders of countries around the world should say to China: ‘Enough is enough.’ What the People’s Republic of China is doing is unacceptable. Once upon a time, communism was the common enemy, because many of us were democratic countries. Now because of economic concerns, leaders of the world and the UN are prepared to ‘sleep with the devil’ if necessary. They seem to forget that the institution that was set up to protect and put things in place to prevent a third world war is not doing the work it was destined to do. China is a country which fails to abide by human rights values, especially when it comes to the persecution of Muslim and Christian religious groups.”
Thunberg is the little girl that could. She has become an international superstar and more power to her.
Let us hope she speaks up for Taiwan’s right to participate in next year’s climate conference in Chile, COP 25.
Do not cop out, Greta. Speak up for Taiwan. If anyone can do it, you can.
Name Withheld
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
Ursula K. le Guin in The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas proposed a thought experiment of a utopian city whose existence depended on one child held captive in a dungeon. When taken to extremes, Le Guin suggests, utilitarian logic violates some of our deepest moral intuitions. Even the greatest social goods — peace, harmony and prosperity — are not worth the sacrifice of an innocent person. Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), since leaving office, has lived an odyssey that has brought him to lows like Le Guin’s dungeon. From late 2008 to 2015 he was imprisoned, much of this