Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) on Tuesday posed a question in the Legislative Yuan about the likelihood of imminent war with China. He said that many Taiwanese were concerned about the possibility.
You cannot blame them, given the increasing scale and intensity of China’s military provocations in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, in addition to many other countries that might support Taiwan against China’s aggression, including the US, being distracted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) said that he did not anticipate this in the foreseeable future, and that Taiwanese forces have not stepped up their alert status. Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), standing next to Yen, added that Beijing would pay a heavy price if it started a war.
This exchange playing out in the nation’s legislature is alarming, and it is exactly what Beijing wants: to intimidate Taiwanese, and sow a sense of fear and confusion among them.
That is not to suggest that the danger is not real.
In an article published on Tuesday titled “Ai Weiwei: ‘Too late’ to curb China’s global influence,” BBC world affairs editor John Simpson said that Hu Xijin (胡錫進), editor-in-chief of China’s state-run tabloid the Global Times, rejects the suggestion that China is an international bully.
Simpson lists a number of countries that might disagree with that sentiment — including Taiwan, Australia, Canada, India, Japan, the UK and the US — and which China is in angry stand-offs with.
The subject of his article was Chinese artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未), whom Simpson quotes as saying that China is now too powerful, and the West too invested in it, for its immense influence in the world to be curbed. Ai does not play a large role in the article, which is more an opportunity for Simpson to outline the exact nature and background of the threat the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses to the world. Embedded in the article ostensibly about Ai is Simpson’s own assessment of an interview with Hu.
To provide a reference point that many Western readers instantly understand as a symbol of despotic communist excess, Simpson evokes the name of Mao Zedong (毛澤東).
Taiwanese, and anyone watching the situation in Taiwan closely, understand very well the bullying nature of, and the threat posed by, the CCP.
There is an increasing sense of urgency in the West, not only for leaders to be aware of the threat from China, but for the public to be informed, too. Simpson’s intention in this article is to flesh out the background to this.
China’s image abroad has deteriorated substantially in the past few months. The catalyst has been the COVID-19 pandemic, which has captured people’s attention because of the direct, all-encompassing effect it has had on their lives. There is an awareness that the wolf has crept up to the door, all the while gaslighting its innocence. However, that wolf does not come in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic itself.
The world has been anticipating a pandemic for many years. That it emerged in China should not be blamed on the CCP given the globalized nature of the world. The CCP’s attempts to cover it up, though, ensured that the worst-case scenario happened.
What the pandemic has revealed, due to the scrutiny it has placed on the CCP’s cover-up, is the pernicious activity the CCP is engaged in.
The Taiwan United Nations Alliance is considering proposing a referendum for the nation to join the UN under the name “Taiwan.” That would rile the wolf, and it is no longer interested in playing the nice guy. The proposal is an admirable aspiration, but an unrealistic and dangerous one.
Hopefully, people in foreign nations understand why that is.
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