A nation existing globally respects what other nations think, and appropriates other nations’ perceptions of itself. The element that a nation wants to see most in its international image is respect, something the People’s Republic of China seems to be craving.
Criteria of respect for nations are historically and culturally variant, but one primary, essential criterion has become universal since the end of the Cold War: a respect for human rights.
How the government of a nation treats its people and how they treat one another has become an essential measure of that nation’s respectability. A nation might be powerful and, hence, feared or depended on; it might be rich and favored as a trade partner.
However, neither power nor utility will elicit respect without ethical respectability.
Moreover, respect for human rights is not an implication of a newly accepted theory or ideology, but a distillate of humankind’s chastening historical experience.
The rampant violations of human rights unfolding in the Xinjiang region, Tibet and Inner Mongolia are appalling.
As an opinion piece in the Taipei Times eloquently said: “China has degenerated into not just a hyper-authoritarian police state, but a Han Chinese-centric, ethnic-nationalist state” (“Beijing ramps up its ethno-fascism,” Sept. 11, page 8).
Beijing’s policies — ethnic cleansing and premeditated cultural and demographic genocide — have destroyed the Chinese government’s credibility and ethical respectability.
The propaganda of the Chinese Community Party (CCP) on building a “united, prosperous, civilized, harmonious and beautiful new, modern, socialist” country reminds me of a book by Guy Sorman, a prominent French intellectual, titled The Empire of Lies — The Truth about China in the Twenty-First Century. To paraphrase a Mark Twain expression popularized in the US: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and CCP propaganda.”
China “fell into a moral swamp, devoid of humanity,” as Ai Weiwei (艾未未), China’s well-known artist and activist, said in his insightful opinion piece in the Taipei Times (“Think sanctions hurt China? Then you are stuck in politics,” Aug. 8, page 9).
China’s other well-known dissident, Liao Yiwu (廖亦武), who is internationally respected as the “Chinese Solzhenitsyn,” said in an interview with Agence France-Presse in April last year that China is “a threat to the whole world and should be split up into 10 or so countries.”
The controversy caused by Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil’s visit to Taiwan creates an interlude in which the residents and politicians of the EU should reflect on their China policy, especially given the bloc’s four goals: peace, prosperity, democracy and human rights.
Other Europeans should learn from Vystrcil’s moral values and principles, his backbone (self-respect), and stop turning “a blind eye toward Beijing’s barbarism” if they genuinely believe in the EU’s lofty goals.
On this occasion, the residents and political leaders of East Asian nations should reflect on their China policy. East Asian countries, especially China’s smaller neighbors concerned over how the “risen China” will treat them, should learn from young Taiwanese.
As a university educator, I have met many Taiwanese students in the US, Europe, China and South Korea. I have been impressed by how they strongly identify as Taiwanese, although their ancestors came from China. They have told me that they would fight to protect Taiwanese’s dignity and freedom if the Chinese military invaded their homeland.
I wonder if the young people found in China’s smaller neighbors have the kind of backbone and strong determination displayed by these young Taiwanese.
If they do, those countries have hope.
If not, China will sooner, rather than later, claim suzerainty over them and make them its tributaries. One cannot rule out that subjugated Asian nations could become another Tibet, Xinjiang or Inner Mongolia.
It behooves educators and people in leadership positions in East and Southeast Asian nations to educate their young generation to cultivate strong backbones — that is, self-respect for themselves and their nation. Self-respecting people and governments do not tolerate invasions from other nations, even if the latter is a so-called superpower.
Yeomin Yoon is a professor at Seton Hall University in New Jersey.
In the event of a war with China, Taiwan has some surprisingly tough defenses that could make it as difficult to tackle as a porcupine: A shoreline dotted with swamps, rocks and concrete barriers; conscription for all adult men; highways and airports that are built to double as hardened combat facilities. This porcupine has a soft underbelly, though, and the war in Iran is exposing it: energy. About 39,000 ships dock at Taiwan’s ports each year, more than the 30,000 that transit the Strait of Hormuz. About one-fifth of their inbound tonnage is coal, oil, refined fuels and liquefied natural gas (LNG),
To counter the CCP’s escalating threats, Taiwan must build a national consensus and demonstrate the capability and the will to fight. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) often leans on a seductive mantra to soften its threats, such as “Chinese do not kill Chinese.” The slogan is designed to frame territorial conquest (annexation) as a domestic family matter. A look at the historical ledger reveals a different truth. For the CCP, being labeled “family” has never been a guarantee of safety; it has been the primary prerequisite for state-sanctioned slaughter. From the forced starvation of 150,000 civilians at the Siege of Changchun
The two major opposition parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), jointly announced on Tuesday last week that former TPP lawmaker Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) would be their joint candidate for Chiayi mayor, following polling conducted earlier this month. It is the first case of blue-white (KMT-TPP) cooperation in selecting a joint candidate under an agreement signed by their chairpersons last month. KMT and TPP supporters have blamed their 2024 presidential election loss on failing to decide on a joint candidate, which ended in a dramatic breakdown with participants pointing fingers, calling polls unfair, sobbing and walking
In the opening remarks of her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) framed her visit as a historic occasion. In his own remarks, Xi had also emphasized the history of the relationship between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Where they differed was that Cheng’s account, while flawed by its omissions, at least partially corresponded to reality. The meeting was certainly historic, albeit not in the way that Cheng and Xi were signaling, and not from the perspective
RSS