Reason Number 31. Taiwan - The Poison Pill of Democracy

‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 59
"Democracy is bitter medicine, and for some political regimes it is difficult to make them take it. As a medicine, democracy protects the individual and grants immunization against party politics. Like all medicines, democracy contains many negative side-effects, yet also provides the individual with a basis in which to survive and grow strong. A more unique method of injecting democracy into a totalitarian or communist state would be in the form of a ‘poison pill.’

Currently, Hong Kong is a limited democracy, and its freedoms are closely monitored and often controlled by Beijing. The Party resists the pressure of democracy within Hong Kong in a cat-and-mouse game designed to keep the people of Hong Kong waiting. The Party knows that they only have approximately 40 more years to wait until the 50 years timeframe of guaranteed political autonomy for Hong Kong has expired, whereupon a smile will return to the faces of Party bosses as they tell the world ‘things change’ and end any hint of democracy in the former colony.

If Hong Kong were to achieve full democracy, could a Hong Kong citizen travel to Beijing on June 4th to commemorate the anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, exercising his or her democratic freedoms? Could a Hong Kong democratic political activist use his or her freedoms to set up a democratic political party in another major city in China? Or could a Hong Kong journalist ask a party politician a question which may reveal ‘state secrets’? Clearly the answer is ‘No.’ Beijing could not tolerate any of these scenarios. This is why, in the opinion of the authors, Hong Kong will never be granted full democracy by Beijing."

These days the relationship between Taiwan and China seems to be warming up. Ma Ying-jeou is making the right noises to please Beijing, and, both parties with their eyes on the buck, direct flights between the two countries have been opened up. This is being hailed as a great achievement: why, Ma has achieved more in the few months of his administration than any other leader of Taiwan since 1949. “Cross-straits peace will be remembered as the most important accomplishment of my administration” he said recently.

It’s sheer bullshit, of course. Anyone who thinks China’s Communist leaders will show the slightest bit of flexibility towards Taiwan knows nothing about China. For Ma to talk of ‘warming relations’ is the grossest sort of hubris. China has only arrogance and contempt for Taiwan, for the wishes of Taiwan’s people. China has no interest in ‘dialog.’ China does not even see Taiwan as the free and independent nation it so obviously is. What kind of respect is that?

China is all smiles for now, now that Ma is not talking of secession. But should Ma ask for the smallest concession, he will be swatted aside like the tiresome bug Beijing views him as. He will never be allowed to deviate from the ludicrous ‘One Country, Two Systems’ fairytale formula, and he will never be accorded the smallest measure of real respect.

China will never change; for China’s leaders and 99% of its people, all indoctrinated, inflexible, and positive about what Taiwan ‘is,’ there remains only one attitude – Taiwan is part of China.

Forget this talk of warming relations – it is a mere passing mirage.

There can be no peace in the Taiwan Straits for the simplest and most obvious of reasons. The Taiwanese people are just that – Taiwanese.

They are not Chinese people, and they have zero interest in being part of China. None whatsoever, none. What free citizen of Taiwan would want to become a slave of China? It is absurd.

And so it is war we are talking about. War is still on the cards, and one day soon China will move to invade Taiwan. The plans are already drawn up and the political calculations made. China will seize Taiwan even if it means killing every person in that nation.

‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 60
"Should Taiwan be taken back with its political system intact, the situation would be profoundly dangerous for China. Other ‘autonomous regions’ such as Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia would see democracy of Taiwan and demand the same for themselves. China’s system of provinces, fractured by democracy, would collapse in on itself, with the Communist Party unable to stop the democratic leaks in the dikes as democracy starts to ‘cure’ the Party’s previous indiscretions.

Taiwan, aside from being the largest democratic poison pill for China, may thus also be viewed as a democratic silver bullet.

But slaying the often-demonized communist Party of China with one ‘shot’ of democracy is simply not going to happen. The attempt by the Beijing government to force other countries to kowtow, accepting the ‘One China Policy,’ is mere bluster. China seeks validity for its policy of reunification in order to legitimize any untoward action such as war in the Taiwan straits.

The game of indignation that Beijing plays to perfection masks their awareness that to swallow Taiwan, with all its democratic energy, would poison the communist system beyond recovery."