The tone is everywhere forceful and smacking of the political platform. "The people of Taiwan live in near diplomatic isolation because most Taiwanese, at least so far, have chosen principle to appeasement, democracy to dictatorship, and independence to servitude," he writes. "Over two centuries ago, we in the United States had Founders who held the same convictions."
The book's Taiwanese heroes are ex-President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), for leaving the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) when it began seeking accommodation with Beijing, and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) for sticking to her anti-Beijing principles. His villains are Lien Chan (連戰) for going to China immediately after the promulgation of the 2005 Anti-Secession Law, and the KMT in general for not supporting the million-strong demonstration against that legislation.
Herschensohn is also willing to give credit to any act that supports his position. Presumably former US President Bill Clinton isn't usually one of his favorite statesmen, but he calls his press-conference in Beijing in June 1998 his "finest hour," and his raising there of issues of human rights, democracy, Tibet, dissidents and religious freedom "magnificent."
There's a chapter entitled "Mayor Ma Smiles a Lot." You quickly get the point when you read there "If Chairman Ma should win the presidency it would not at all be surprising that before the end of his term in office, Taiwan would be scheduled to live under a 'One Country, Two Systems' structure."
Taipei Times is cited more than once, and one 2005 lead article is quoted almost in its entirety.
Herschensohn can be amusing when he isn't being outspoken. His characterization of US diplomat-speak as strong on terms like "unhelpful" and "unfortunate," on urging "both sides" to re-consider rather than condemning one of them, and stressing "peace and stability" rather than freedom and human rights, makes many statements look anodyne when re-read in this light.
Herschensohn is rarely, if ever, actually wrong. His sins are those of omission, of not seeing the other side of his country's foreign policy, for instance, and of too great a readiness to take the statements of his political friends at face value.
This, then, is the voice of the pro-Taiwan lobby in the US, and this book a challenge to fellow Republicans to re-think their policies towards China and Taiwan. It may be myopic about the world-wide picture, but its argument on Taiwan can't help sounding very convincing indeed in this particular corner of the globe.
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