The international community needs to urge China to learn from Taiwan

In an interview in Taipei City on January 13th, the last campaign day this year, a 30-year-old woman who had previously studied at a Japanese university said: “I don’t think it’s ideal to rely on other countries but Taiwan on its own is not strong enough to avoid being overpowered by China. We need military assistance from the US and economic assistance from Japan. I urge the people of Japan to buy more Taiwanese goods and produce.”

Last year, out of respect for Chinese opposition, the Obama administration missed the opportunity to sell a new fighter jet to Taiwan. Also, when Japan and the US took up diplomatic relations with China in the 70s, they caved in to pressure from the government in Beijing and cut off diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Simply in order to get their karma back on track, protect their freedom, their democratic values, and their countries, Japan and the US should take every opportunity that presents itself to them to support Taiwan from now on. We must never accept the totalitarian “stability” based on Chinese supremacy advocated by China. This is a war of values. Some Taiwanese say “If we would end up like Hong Kong, it would be fine to be united with China.” But even in Hong Kong, which was returned to China in 1997, anybody advocating democratization is denied entry, and freedom is losing more footing by the day.

Currently, as Master Okawa said, the ideal state for China-Taiwan relations is that Taiwan is not so much moving towards China as China is moving towards Taiwan. Taiwan does, however, need international support. And supporting them would help the world move towards true stability. After the Taiwanese elections have come to a close, the Taiwanese people may want to think the importance of freedom, without which free elections leading to true representation of the people in government would not be possible.