Taiwan is the first and only democracy in the history of Chinese civilization, yet too many Taiwanese citizens do not seem to appreciate this.
Their counterparts in communist China don't have to shoulder the burden of deciding which political party to support in national issues like how many missiles or submarines to buy, and whether or not they should have self-determination. By avoiding such contentious issues, people in China can live a worry-free existence, as long as they don't ask too many political questions or surf prohibited Web sites with words like "democracy."
If this is how Taiwanese would prefer to live, then the burdens of democracy could soon be relieved by China's military, since Taiwan's government continues to be crippled in matters of national defense.
The leaders of China's communist oligarchy are shrewd. Behind a veil of peaceful economic expansion, Olympic promotion and panda diplomacy, they are building a war machine which, unlike the former Soviet Union, will have the money to succeed in an arms race with the US.
As long as Taiwan hangs in the balance as an ambiguous entity in the international community, despite its de facto independence and its decade-long existence as a democracy, it can be "reunified" through conquest. If Taiwan's voters don't support improving defense, the country's diplomatic status and national identity, then Taiwan's political miracle will end.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has the right to promote his sinocentric policy of appeasing Beijing. And Ma also has the right to sell out Taiwan if he is elected president one day. That is the irony of democracy. Taiwan's citizens cannot complain if they continue to elect KMT leaders who seem more interested in prostrating themselves to Beijing for future positions in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as part of a "unified China," than in defending Taiwan's national sovereignty.
I blame the majority of adult citizens of Taiwan, who, despite living through martial law, do not value their freedom enough to vote to preserve a modern, democratic Taiwan and firmly reject the CCP-KMT alliance.
The longer Taiwan remains in this ambivalent legislative gridlock, the more missiles China can build up for its decapitation strike, the more submarines it can launch to blockade the US Pacific Fleet, and the more international "goodwill" it can deploy before enforcing last year's "Anti-Secession" Law.
The US' Taiwan Relations Act will not save Taiwan if the Chinese army is already sitting in Taipei with the island blockaded before the US navy is even halfway across the Pacific. If the people of Taiwan do not soon realize the urgency and reality of this scenario, then Taiwan will remain inadequately defended both militarily and diplomatically.
Before the Taiwanese realize what has happened and before the US military can do anything about it, all those heavy burdens of being the first Chinese democracy -- the confusing cacophony of free thought, the divisive debates of political freedom and the self-reflective conflicts of national identity and self-determination -- will be permanently lifted by the CCP.
Tzeng Ching-Wei
Birmingham, Alabama
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