On Tuesday, a 3m “Goddess of Democracy” statue was erected in Washington by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in memory of the more than 100 million people who have died at the hands of the world’s various communist governments.
Taiwan, through the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, donated US$1 million to the monument. In fact, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation chairman Lee Edwards said that Taiwan was among the most generous donors.
But as Taiwan’s representative to Washington Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) correctly pointed out, the worth of the monument is its significance, not its cost.
To this day, Taiwan remains a victim of communism — or more specifically, a victim of the Chinese Communist Party. In addition to the military threat that China poses with its more than 900 missiles aimed at Taiwan, the nation is a frequent victim of Beijing’s saber-rattling and incessant attempts to prevent Taiwan’s participation in the international community.
Edwards said the Washington monument — dedicated on the 20th anniversary of then US president Ronald Reagan’s famous Berlin speech, during which he said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”— was created not only to remember the millions who have died, but also to educate people about the worldwide impact of communism.
From our perspective, it is hoped that the erection of the statue will in some small way help to open the eyes of the numerous members of the international community who appear to harbor illusions about communist China. For, in their eagerness to gain a share of China’s massive market, foreign governments are often far too willing to curry favor with Beijing at the expense of democratic Taipei.
Continual compromise and kowtowing to China by the free nations of the world are not going to make Beijing’s bullies open up their society and embrace democracy.
This strategy has proven to be a complete and utter failure. Surely the most obvious way of encouraging the spread of democracy would be to support those democratic countries which stand up to the threat of communism?
At a conference held earlier this month in Prague, Czech Republic, on the subject of “Democracy and Security,” US President George W. Bush held up Taiwan as an example for the world to follow. He went on to make an indirect reference to the Martial Law era of the then Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government, contrasting it with the democracy Taiwan presently enjoys.
Indeed, Taiwan’s successful democratization stands as both its crowning achievement and its best means of protection against the threat posed by communist China.
And so, regardless of their political affiliation, Taiwan’s future leaders must put democracy first — because it is the most important of the many things that separate this country from China, where one quarter of the world’s population is enslaved by a communist dictatorship.
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
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS