On Tuesday, the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress ruled -- in an interpretation of Hong Kong's Basic Law -- that Beijing has final say over amendments the territory's government makes to its laws governing the election of its chief executive and the Legislative Council. The interpretation crushes hopes in Hong Kong for universal suffrage in 2007. It is also a disappointing retraction of promises concerning the territory's autonomy and a new interpretation of Beijing's "one country, two systems" policy.
Pro-democracy groups are reportedly organizing a demonstration for Sunday to protest the ruling. They have also started an action asking each resident to send a protest letter to Beijing's liaison office in Hong Kong. The angry reaction from Hong Kong's democrats is not difficult to understand, nor was Beijing's ruling unexpected. The inability of the people of Hong Kong to come to grips with this decision is a reflection of their unrealistic expectations of the Zhongnanhai leadership and the "one country, two systems" policy.
The people of Taiwan, however, firmly set on consolidating democracy, should condemn Beijing's ruling and support the determination of the people of Hong Kong to pursue autonomy.
Democracy is a universal value. China should not postpone democracy in the name of cultural or national conditions. It doesn't enhance China's international image and is detrimental to future cross-strait developments. China's tightening of its grip on Hong Kong dampens the willingness of the people of Taiwan to improve cross-strait relations. The political credibility of Beijing, slim to begin with, will evaporate.
When the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (
But Beijing has not given up and has now placed severe restrictions on direct elections for the territory's leadership. Will the people of Hong Kong have to take to the streets whenever China launches a bill to restrict democracy? If this is the case, where is Hong Kong's better tomorrow?
Friendly observers must also note that one of the biggest blind spots among Hong Kong's pro-democracy activists is their acceptance of Chinese nationalism. Due to their full identification with and belief in China, they have been repeatedly trapped by their own "nationalist complex" in their pursuit of autonomy. For example, in testimony on Capitol Hill early last month, Democratic Party founder Martin Lee (
Lee's blind spot is shared by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-People First Party (PFP) alliance, which also subscribes to with Chinese nationalism. The alliance faces the same problem as Lee in its pursuit of a mature democracy. It upholds certain democratic values, but is bound by Chinese nationalism. As a result, the alliance is completely trapped in a nationalist-style reaction when facing crucial democratic problems, such as Chinese interference.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS