Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine indicates the emergence of a new Russia-China alliance — an “authoritarian bloc” that seeks to challenge the US-led democratic world order.
The invasion has sparked intense local debate, with many concerned that China might follow suit and invade Taiwan.
Chinese nationalists and pro-Beijing Taiwanese have been hammering away at their keyboards in an attempt to shape the narrative around the Russian invasion.
Many posts and comments repeat similar themes, such as: “I would not go to war for any politician,” and reveal their origins. The warped logic of such posts could only have come from inside an authoritarian regime.
There have been numerous “hot takes” on the war in Ukraine circulating on Taiwanese discussion forums, including Professional Technology Temple, the nation’s most popular online bulletin board, and Dcard, an online forum popular among young people.
Typical examples include: “High ranking [Ukrainian] officials will certainly flee like rats from a sinking ship — I wouldn’t fight on their behalf” and: “If China invades [Taiwan], I would definitely run up the white flag.”
In the short term, such posts trend online, but they are not only highly suspicious — most Taiwanese Internet users would suspect that they have been fabricated by Chinese bot farms — but comments such as: “I wouldn’t go to war for any politician” also clearly betray a Chinese, rather than a Taiwanese, thought process.
Chinese society is still structured around an authoritarian, imperial model. Everyone and everything is subservient to the “emperor.” For example, a video circulated online during China’s Himalayan border conflict with India last year showed Chinese recruits crying because they think they are being sent to the front line as “cannon fodder.”
Under China’s imperial system of government — rather than the nation belonging to the people — its people are the property of the emperor, which in today’s China means the Chinese Communist Party. Under this model, the sentiment: “I wouldn’t go to war for any politician,” or being reduced to tears at the prospect of possibly dying for one’s country, is to be expected.
In democratic societies, the inverse is true. The nation belongs to the people, who give their political representatives a temporary mandate to rule by means of an electoral vote. This is a far cry from China, where everything belongs to the one-party state.
The whole world is aware that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected safe passage out of Ukraine offered to him by Washington, remained in the capital and, if necessary, would fight alongside his compatriots in Kyiv’s volunteer battalions. The same is true of former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, Ukrainian lawmakers and many ordinary Ukrainians.
From the top down, Ukrainians are bravely resisting the enemy. They are fighting to protect their democratic freedoms, for it is like oxygen to them. It is the most basic of human instincts to want to protect family, friends and native soil.
This sense of attachment to community, to one’s compatriots, is something that most Chinese, trapped inside an unreformed imperial system, will never understand.
Pan Kuan was a participant in the 2014 Sunflower movement.
Translated by Edward Jones
In an article published in Newsweek on Monday last week, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged China to retake territories it lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. “If it is really for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t China take back Russia?” Lai asked, referring to territories lost in 1858 and 1860. The territories once made up the two flanks of northern Manchuria. Once ceded to Russia, they became part of the Russian far east. Claims since then have been made that China and Russia settled the disputes in the 1990s through the 2000s and that “China
Trips to the Kenting Peninsula in Pingtung County have dredged up a lot of public debate and furor, with many complaints about how expensive and unreasonable lodging is. Some people even call it a tourist “butchering ground.” Many local business owners stake claims to beach areas by setting up parasols and driving away people who do not rent them. The managing authority for the area — Kenting National Park — has long ignored the issue. Ultimately, this has affected the willingness of domestic travelers to go there, causing tourist numbers to plummet. In 2008, Taiwan opened the door to Chinese tourists and in
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Thursday was handcuffed and escorted by police to the Taipei Detention Center, after the Taipei District Court ordered that he be detained and held incommunicado for suspected corruption during his tenure as Taipei mayor. The ruling reversed an earlier decision by the same court on Monday last week that ordered Ko’s release without bail. That decision was appealed by prosecutors on Wednesday, leading the High Court to conclude that Ko had been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and it ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Video clips
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) arrest is a significant development. He could have become president or vice president on a shared TPP-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ticket and could have stood again in 2028. If he is found guilty, there would be little chance of that, but what of his party? What about the third force in Taiwanese politics? What does this mean for the disenfranchised young people who he attracted, and what does it mean for his ambitious and ideologically fickle right-hand man, TPP caucus leader Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌)? Ko and Huang have been appealing to that
RSS