Taiwan cannot fall to China
Although several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators voiced their support for Chinese influencer Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), who runs the social media account “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣), she was ultimately given a deadline to leave Taiwan after her spousal dependency-based residency was revoked due to her calling for China to use military force against Taiwan. Society breathed a collective sigh of relief when she departed Taiwan voluntarily on Tuesday last week.
Meanwhile, the KMT and Taiwan People’s Party legislative majority passed a second reading of a proposal to hold a referendum opposing the implementation of martial law. This is eyebrow-raising as the KMT’s former leaders, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son and successor president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) declared martial law, fearing that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would cross the Taiwan Strait and invade Taiwan after the KMT fled here at the end of the Chinese Civil War. Martial law lasted here for 38 years. Because military law continued for far too long, the Chiangs were accused of contravening human rights. Taiwan’s civilians eventually triumphed in getting martial law rescinded in 1987.
Although martial law can infringe on civil liberties, if any country faces imminent existential threats, its leader could still declare it.
What is martial law exactly? Wikipedia’s entry on the topic defines it as: Emergency measures taken when a country is involved in war with an outside power, disturbed by domestic discord, and other serious threats to public order. When martial law is in effect, judicial and executive powers are managed in part or in whole by the military. Some countries integrate martial law into a state of emergency and level-one war preparedness.
With the CCP sending Chinese People’s Liberation Army ships and aircraft to harass our country, domestic pro-China political parties, Internet celebrities and media outlets in Taiwan continue to say that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family,” and our government faces internal and external pressure through military and verbal threats. If the day comes when our nation truly faces a security crisis, but we cannot respond using martial law to control the media or anti-government forces, and can only twiddle our thumbs as bad actors spread rumors and destroy social order, we would ultimately lose our democratic freedoms and economic prosperity. By then we would fall into an inescapable abyss.
Is falling to China really what all Taiwanese want? We must recall KMT legislators so Taiwan can continue its days of peace and prosperity.
Wang Ming-tsung
Taipei
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) were born under the sign of Gemini. Geminis are known for their intelligence, creativity, adaptability and flexibility. It is unlikely, then, that the trade conflict between the US and China would escalate into a catastrophic collision. It is more probable that both sides would seek a way to de-escalate, paving the way for a Trump-Xi summit that allows the global economy some breathing room. Practically speaking, China and the US have vulnerabilities, and a prolonged trade war would be damaging for both. In the US, the electoral system means that public opinion
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
RSS