Taiwan: The Threatened Democracy is a hard-hitting statement of the pro-Taiwan and anti-China position from a US Republican commentator. The author's worldview may be in need of serious qualification, but on Taiwan itself his book is hard to fault.
What Bruce Herschensohn believes is that the US is ignoring the issue of liberty versus oppression in the interest of profits from trade with China. He feels his government has already gone far along this road, despite US President George W. Bush's claim to be willing to defend freedom anywhere in the world.
Herschensohn is a former Richard Nixon aide and current conservative activist. The book's publisher, World Ahead, is also a conservative set-up, with a kids' title Help! Mom! There are liberals under my bed! on its list.
The book has the usual Republican obsessions - a strong dislike of France as the country most eager to sell China advanced weapons technology, scorn for the UN ("that failed international organization"), and skepticism about diplomats in general. But after reading it I understood why, in American elections, most Taiwanese vigorously support Republican candidates.
Facts clearly presented are one of the book's strong points. One chapter deals with Hong Kong. There's no ranting here, just a chronological list of 109 instances in which the city has had its former freedoms eroded over the last 10 years. By the end, any idea of "One country, two systems" as a formula that might one day apply to Taiwan is in tatters.
Any claims China might have to be a civil society are demolished. Herschensohn rages against all the evils that have ever been laid at China's door - the Anti-Secession Law, the persecution of Falun Gong and Catholics loyal to Rome, the one-child policy, Tiananmen Square, the imprisonment of dissidents, aid to "terrorist nations," the sale of the organs of the executed, mass Chinese migration into Tibet, the military build-up, and so on. There's no word of praise anywhere for Chinese authorities.
There are several qualifications that a more disinterested observer might make. There's no word about the absurdity of much Falun Gong doctrine, nor anything about, say, Beijing's attempts to reduce its number of executions. And, when describing the US as the world's great defender of freedom, Herschensohn fails to mention Washington's record in South America where libertarian movements were, according to many accounts, subverted almost as a matter of course throughout much of the last century.
Herschensohn is especially outraged at the treatment of Taiwan's politicians when they travel abroad, citing Chinese President Hu Jintao being received on the White House lawn to a 21-gun salute in April, 2006, while the following month Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was told he could only make a re-fueling stop in Hawaii or Alaska on his way to South America, and should under no circumstances stay overnight.
Yet there are 40 Catholic bishops and priests in jail in China and zero in Taiwan, Herschensohn trumpets. And anyway, why shouldn't Taiwan be a state if it wants to be, when the Palestinians can be one - even though many there advocate the overthrow of Israel? With Americans dying for liberty in Iraq and Afghanistan, he argues, it would be a "tragic irony" for Taiwan to be taken over by a state where liberty is unknown. (Herschensohn appears not to understand exactly what "tragic irony" is, but we'll let that pass).
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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