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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2005-03-25

And Speaking Of Popular Demonstrations . . .

Keep an eye on Taiwan tomorrow.

Tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese will take to the streets in our country to peacefully express their opposition to China's most recent threat to the freedom of Taiwan. This month the National People's Congress passed a so-called "Anti-Secession Law" that threatens the use of military force against our country. The demonstrators will mobilize to oppose the idea that China has a "right" to use force to subjugate the people of Taiwan -- and they will protest the notion that some 2,900 unelected and unaccountable Chinese "parliamentarians" have the right to determine the future of the 23 million people of Taiwan.

This WaPo op-ed, by the Premier of the Republic of China (i.e., Taiwan)is an important statement in defense of Taiwan's right of exitence in the face of hostility from mainland China. It argues, admittedly one-sidedly, that Taiwan has made extensive efforts to co-exist with China, while China has continually rebuffed those overtures and flexed its muscle towards Taiwan.

By the way, when I say "admittedly, one-sidedly", I also recognize that when it comes to the spread of freedom and liberty, there is only one side on that debate.

For all the efforts to "engage" China and help it become a "responsible" power, the reality is that it continues to stifle the democratic aspirations of its own people and to threaten Taiwan's democracy with military force. Unless the great democracies of the world say this behavior is not tolerable, we will only be inviting Beijing to believe it is.

If I'm not mistaken, the U.S. has a defense treaty with Taiwan; and China has recently started buying arms from Europe again; and market analysts keep citing Chinese demand for oil as a primary catalyst of the recent oil price explosion; and that oil increase has had a demonstrable effect on the U.S. economy.

I don't know if that stream of thoughts is going anywhere--I'm just trying to keep all the pieces in sight.
Posted by: Michael / 3/25/2005 06:43:00 AM

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