Taiwanese people know that today's China has become a haven for Taiwanese gangsters and economic criminals.
For humanitarian reasons and for the safety of air travelers, the government began in the 1990s to send Chinese hijackers seeking freedom back to China, in accordance with international regulations. This has stopped people from using such violent means to escape. However, to this day, Taiwan's efforts to improve cross-strait relations have not been reciprocated by China. On the contrary, Beijing uses Chinese criminals to repeatedly attack the nation, politically and economically.
Today, not only is Beijing not willing to let illegal Chinese immigrants be repatriated in a timely manner, but it shelters many criminals who have committed serious crimes in this country, allowing them to use China as a base and continue their vicious actions against Taiwanese businesspeople and the public. How can such a bad neighbor ever win acceptance from the Taiwanese people?
For example, fugitive Hsueh Chiu (
In terms of the cross-strait relationship, it is all but obvious that Beijing is hoping to indulge these criminals and thereby achieve its goal of destroying Taiwan's economic stability, social order and political harmony. China's use of Chen Yu-hao to launch a fierce attack on President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) during the presidential election showed the Taiwanese people that one of the main reasons that these criminals are allowed to hide in China is that China hopes that they can be used as tools with which to attack and vilify Taiwan's leaders.
On the international stage, China has not only sought to prevent Taiwan from gaining observer status in the World Health Organization, but more recently it also sought to obstruct the nation's participation in the International Symposium on Economic Crime hosted by Cambridge University. It was only because the organizers refused to bow to pressure from the Chinese embassy in the UK that Beijing did not achieve its goal. But is there any need for such seminars, which aim to achieve peace, health, safety and happiness for people around the world, to be drawn into such a political whirlpool? China's rulers obviously think so, and they have even sought to drum up blame and criticism over Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's (
Taiwan, with its democracy, freedom and rule of law, stands in stark contrast to the tyrannical ways of China. This is something that all the world can see. Moreover, Taiwanese can now see the ulterior motives behind Beijing's willingness to provide a haven for Taiwan's felons.
This kind of despicable behavior only reveals the true face of the Chinese Communist Party's power. It shows that China's leaders are no better than a pack of thieves and assures that Taiwanese with ideals and aspirations will want nothing to do with them.
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
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
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
RSS