By bringing itself closer to its gifted populace, Taiwan’s unique native-born democracy, business community and civil society more effectively and deeply tap into, draw up from and bring into modern expression the timeless wisdom, aptitude and creative genius of the ancient Chinese people, time out of mind.
In marked contrast, in China we see ever so clearly how a style of ruthless communist dictatorship imported from Europe exalts itself ever so arrogantly high above the Chinese public, grabs power for itself which by rights should be theirs, controls the information they are allowed to receive and exchange, strangles their free expression, stifles their independent initiative and smothers their freedom to be who they are and think what they what to think.
By doing so, it very evidently quashes too large a part of the sizeable contribution that can be made by Chinese across the Asian continent and in the various countries which China has been snatching for itself over time, and continues trying to steal today.
In this category, Taiwan comes most readily to mind.
If big China somehow manages to win out over little Taiwan, it would only be because, like all ruthless bullies, it is bigger — not better.
Anybody can see that. Anybody, that is, who has free access to the available information, which those within China do not. Hence this charade continues down through the years, growing ever more ridiculous even as it grows more inevitable that the tyranny in China is not flexible enough to adjust to the changed facts of the situation, no matter what the consequences might be for the planet.
Yes, Taiwan was once part of the Qing Empire. It was also once part of the Japanese Empire. It has since become a free and independent country.
Yes, Taiwanese are predominantly ethnic Chinese.
However, the original settlers of what became the US were predominantly from the British Isles, as are those of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, yet the UK does not claim New Zealand as a “renegade province.”
One wonders how China can get away with what it is doing. Controlling the information that its 1.4 billion people receive might go a long way to explain it.
Too bad it is not yet able to control what information those of us over here in Taiwan get.
Too bad that it cannot seem to manufacture advanced semiconductor chips that this free and independent nation has learned to make.
Too bad that it has not been able to refrain from outright theft of intellectual property belonging to foreign companies operating factories on its soil — thus driving so many of them to Vietnam, India, Mexico and elsewhere, leaving multitudes in China newly unemployed.
Too bad that China has gotten so enamored with building big that it has neglected to construct dams that are more numerous, smaller and better dispersed instead of the monstrosities it so prides itself in, which prove so vulnerable to the wild floods that accompany climate change.
Finally, it is too bad for China that nobody anywhere really wants to involve themselves too much with a country which makes it so clear that it aims to dominate and control the world.
It is far better, and more comfortable, to do business with smaller, more agile and intelligent countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Estonia — and Taiwan.
William R. Stimson is a US writer living in Taiwan who has taught an adjunct course at several universities in the country.
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