A US professor who has just returned from a month-long lecture tour in China says many academics he met there “expressed dissent from the official party line on the sensitive issue of Taiwan.”
In an article published on the Washington Post Web site, George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin describes what he found to be surprisingly pro-Taiwan attitudes.
One academic said that if Taiwanese wish to be independent, “they should be allowed to do so,” Somin writes.
Another said that although he hoped that “unification” would come eventually, he opposed it at present, because “it would be a disaster for Taiwan,” as it would fall under the control of Beijing’s authoritarian regime.
“When I asked these intellectuals whether their views are shared by the general population, most seemed confident that they were,” Somin says.
“One told me that if the Chinese government were to allow a genuinely free election, the winner would probably be the Kuomintang [Chinese Nationalist Party, KMT] rather than the [Chinese Communist Party],” he said.
“Ironically, an American academic expert on China recounted to me that a pro-communist Chinese intellectual had recently told her that he opposed unification with Taiwan because such a step might force the government to allow free elections, which he too expected to be won by the KMT rather than the Communists — a result he did not welcome,” Somin says.
He adds that the growing prevalence of protest movements in China provides some support for claims that public opinion is aligned with that of liberal intellectuals.
“But it is very difficult to say if intellectual advocates of liberalization really have majority opinion on their side or not,” he says.
Somin lectured about property rights in China and Taiwan.
He presented a series of lectures at Zhengzhou University in China’s Henan Province and talks on property and eminent domain at the Unirule Institute of Economics think tank in Beijing.
He claims to have met “numerous” Chinese academics and students, as well as some government officials and other intellectuals.
“It was striking to me that most of the Chinese academics and intellectuals I spoke with are not fans of the country’s present authoritarian regime,” he says.
“In private and even semi-public conversations, many of them openly stated that they wanted the government to give way to a Western-style multiparty democracy,” Somin says.
He says the academics advocate freedom of speech and religion, and want free markets, private property and liberalization of the economy.
Somin is careful to stress that the people he talked with may not be representative of mass opinion.
“Despite such caveats, it is notable that there is at least a substantial number of Chinese intellectuals who not only want the regime to liberalize, but are willing to forcefully express such views to foreigners they do not know very well,” he writes.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS