Taiwan: Yesterday and Today
This year, 2023, could be the year that Communist China finally launches its long-anticipated war on Taiwan. For decades the mainland behemoth has blustered and threatened, occasionally resorting to military shows of force. The Chinese Communist Party has berated Western governments, and the United States in particular, for their continued support of Taiwan’s free and independent government. It has long since persuaded all but a tiny minority of its captive citizenship that the key to restoring China’s lost dignity and putting to rest more than a century of foreign humiliation is annexing the Republic of China on Taiwan.
At the same time, free and prosperous little Taiwan has begun building up and modernizing its military as quickly as possible. No one doubts Chinese dictator Xi Jinping’s plan to launch a war of annexation as soon as possible; in recent months his massive military has carried out almost continuous threatening military exercises in the waters and skies around Taiwan. With President Biden openly promising to come to Taiwan’s defense on more than one occasion, and the United States redeploying significant forces to the western Pacific, the question no longer seems to be whether, but when, a world war will break out in the Pacific Ocean, a conflict that at minimum will involve the world’s three largest economies (the United States, China, and Japan), and could well spiral into all-out unrestricted warfare all across the Pacific Rim and beyond. Sane minds all agree that such a conflict would be ruinous, but, in view of Xi’s obvious intentions, it seems increasingly unlikely that such an outcome can be avoided.
In stark contrast with Communist China — where culture, religious expression, and speech are strictly curtailed by the totalitarian regime — Taiwan is brimming over with cultural and religious expression, including many Western faiths. The many Buddhist temples in Taiwan are always abuzz with activity, and Taiwanese and foreign Christians mingle freely. There are no limits on free speech or the internet, and the Taiwanese are as immersed in foreign entertainment and media as the citizens of any other free country. Taiwan very literally presents an entirely different version of China — a vibrant, free society full of talented people — that completely negates the Chinese Communist Party’s core claim that only it can rule the Chinese people effectively and elevate them above their traditional poverty and ignorance. The great divide between the two Chinas laying claim to sovereignty over the whole can only be fully appreciated in the context of five centuries of contentious history.
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