Opinion | How can the West say it respects the one-China policy when it refuses to see Taiwan as part of China?
- As the political temperature rises over the Taiwan Strait, the US is supplying more arms and seeking to raise the temperature even more
- Chinese are a peace-loving people but they will not accept being bullied any more or ever allow Taiwan to be separated from China
I got angry recently because a leader of a Northern European country claimed that if China “invaded” Taiwan, European countries would not sit and do nothing. This is not the first time I have heard the word “invade” being used in relation to Taiwan. In fact, it is all over the internet.
Why do those who have sworn to respect the one-China policy never actually regard Taiwan as part of China? If that is not hypocrisy, I do not know what is.
If one looks back at recent history, it is clear that except for the period when Japan occupied Taiwan, it has always been part of China. From a historic point of view, Taiwan is probably more Chinese than Hawaii is American, or Scotland is British. So since when has Taiwan become just an island off the coast of China?
We speak the same language, we share the same culture and we are descended from the same ancestors, but why are we so different that the US might fight a war, if need be, to keep us apart? Pelosi has said this is dictated by the needs of democracy but since when has democracy become a divisive tool rather than a building block of a cohesive pluralistic nation?
I recall when I first went to Taiwan after my studies in the United Kingdom, Taiwan still had night curfews. Everywhere I went, I saw huge posters reminding people “not to forget” they were merely resting in a strange land for now, and they had to “counter-attack the mainland” when the time was ripe. But the time was never ripe. The determination to take back the mainland has waned with the passage of time, while a misguided notion about betraying the motherland has emerged.
