What China's rise brings to the world is a threat to world peace, and thus all democratic countries should group together with Taiwan to counter Chinese military expansion, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) said yesterday.
Lee shared his experiences and thoughts about his recent 13-day US trip at a forum held by Taiwan Advocates, a think tank founded by him.
He said his trip was aimed at exposing the threat of China to Americans, telling them that China's ambitions are threatening Taiwan's democracy and that the rise of China is jeopardizing world peace.
"China's rise threatens not only the result of Taiwan's democracy but also world peace," he said. "The more China develops its economic performance and the more China enhances its military force, the bigger threat it brings to the world."
"The rise of an anti-democratic country is just like Hitler's regime," he said, noting that many friends he met in the US have empathized with his likening China to Germany under Adolf Hitler.
Lee said that the US is beginning to realize that thinking that an open economy would result in political democracy in China was wrong.
"This way of thinking was so naive. Gradually, the US has found that China has used the benefits of its economic development to consolidate its autocratic regime," Lee said.
Economic development gave China's authorities more resources with which to control and repress its people -- as shown by the recent arrest of a Chinese dissident based on information provided by Yahoo, Lee said.
Lee said that he told his friends in the US that America should take notice of "how China is rising" rather than debating "whether China will rise or not."
"While there is a general expectation that the world will benefit from the growth of China's economy and many countries are thus lured into investing there, many countries ignore the threat that a rising China brings to the world," he said.
Lee said that only way to make sure that China's rise is peaceful is to help it pursue democratization.
Lee urged people to uphold and cherish democracy in Taiwan. He said this was the best way to resist China's military threat.
"As long as Taiwan can stick to democracy, it will be backed up by international friends who are in favor of freedom and peace and can defend the country's security," Lee said.
Lee said that Taiwanese people have to keep pursuing the goal of being the master of their own country despite the difficulties in changing the country's official title from "Republic of China" to "Taiwan" and in establishing a new constitution.
"Some friends in the US told me that less than half of the people supported independence in 1776, but a new country was finally established through the efforts of many people who never gave up their dreams," he said.
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