Democracy at peril
The great 19th-century US poet Walt Whitman said that “[Democracy] is a great word, whose history, I suppose, remains unwritten because that history has yet to be enacted.”
He famously noted that the history of democracy could not be written because democracy (as he knew it) was not yet properly built.
It seems arguable that the Jan. 6 event at the US Capitol has proved him right. What is happening in the US might not be surprising. No human process is pure; it is a mix of good and evil, justice and injustice, egotism and altruism, rationality and unreason.
The oppressed minorities are still in the process of self-liberation, and the oppressors or those who have benefited from their oppressive forebears are defending their inherited privilege.
The question is how strong the apparent progressive, liberal, humanitarian force is. At this moment, it appears that such a force is not strong enough to counter the opposing party in the US.
For example, Trump’s supporters, followers or sycophants are unlikely to sideline him, and the US Senate is unlikely to convict him after an impeachment, before or after he leaves office.
Upon watching TV news reporting on that day, a devout Christian friend told me the following story: “God is educating humanity to become what God intends it to become — a community of mutually respectful and loving individuals. God found humanity He created so recalcitrant that He had to send His Son to the world to teach humans with His self-sacrifice for them.”
This is a unique story, if not history.
However, this kind of view seems to neither sound convincing nor provide hope to those who believe that history has amply demonstrated that God is aloof, or indifferent to, human affairs.
A question close to many American hearts remains: From the early third decade of the 21st century, what will be the fate of US democracy?
A bold prediction might be as follows: Given the widening gap between the rich and the poor, continuing discrimination against minorities, religious and nationalist intolerance, and political figures who corrupt laws and give a bad name to democratic politics, US democracy might not survive indefinitely.
US democracy can slit its own throat or quietly take its own life in the act of “democide.”
I hope that history to be written will prove this dire prediction wrong. And I will toast to that.
Yeomin Yoon
New Jersey
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been expansionist and contemptuous of international law. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the CCP regime has become more despotic, coercive and punitive. As part of its strategy to annex Taiwan, Beijing has sought to erase the island democracy’s international identity by bribing countries to sever diplomatic ties with Taipei. One by one, China has peeled away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners, leaving just 12 countries (mostly small developing states) and the Vatican recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Taiwan’s formal international space has shrunk dramatically. Yet even as Beijing has scored diplomatic successes, its overreach
In her article in Foreign Affairs, “A Perfect Storm for Taiwan in 2026?,” Yun Sun (孫韻), director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington, said that the US has grown indifferent to Taiwan, contending that, since it has long been the fear of US intervention — and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) inability to prevail against US forces — that has deterred China from using force against Taiwan, this perceived indifference from the US could lead China to conclude that a window of opportunity for a Taiwan invasion has opened this year. Most notably, she observes that
For Taiwan, the ongoing US and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets are a warning signal: When a major power stretches the boundaries of self-defense, smaller states feel the tremors first. Taiwan’s security rests on two pillars: US deterrence and the credibility of international law. The first deters coercion from China. The second legitimizes Taiwan’s place in the international community. One is material. The other is moral. Both are indispensable. Under the UN Charter, force is lawful only in response to an armed attack or with UN Security Council authorization. Even pre-emptive self-defense — long debated — requires a demonstrably imminent
Since being re-elected, US President Donald Trump has consistently taken concrete action to counter China and to safeguard the interests of the US and other democratic nations. The attacks on Iran, the earlier capture of deposed of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and efforts to remove Chinese influence from the Panama Canal all demonstrate that, as tensions with Beijing intensify, Washington has adopted a hardline stance aimed at weakening its power. Iran and Venezuela are important allies and major oil suppliers of China, and the US has effectively decapitated both. The US has continuously strengthened its military presence in the Philippines. Japanese Prime
RSS