Liberating Taiwan from itself

Yet the continual harping on the "sacredness" of the national cause betrays a crisis of identity, if not outright hypocrisy. Marx must be spinning in his grave. Mao would probably crack his crystal sarcophagus if he knew. Meanwhile, the word "motherland" -- which has such a cozy resonance in English -- itself masks the deeply Confucianist, illiberal nature of the Chinese state. In Chinese the word is zuguo (祖國), literally "land of our forefathers" -- with the emphasis most definitely on fathers, not mothers. One wonders why the propagandists at Xinhua News Agency don't translate it with that perfectly respectable English word "fatherland."

So the PRC has lost the argument, and has nothing left now but threats. Jiang Zemin came right out and admitted it. Yet still we see mainland academics and diplomats popping up on CNN and elsewhere, claiming to present coherent arguments for the legitimacy of the PRC's claim to Taiwan. News organizations and international forums really should stop taking these people seriously. They belabor Taiwan's leaders for not being willing to negotiate in good faith, but at the same time they press the barrel of a gun against the head of every man woman and child in Taiwan -- people who pose no danger to China whatsoever.

It's about time that these "intellectuals" were confronted at every turn with the mind-boggling dishonesty of their reasoning, a reasoning that boils down to the simple, vicious threat: "Accept PRC sovereignty, on our terms and our timetable ... or be liberated!"

Christopher MacDonald is a freelance writer based in Taipei.