Taiwan – Strait Talk by Lee Longhwa

The United Nations’ Chronic Appeasement of Communist China

I wrote the following as yet unpublished letter to the editor at Taiwan News regarding an editorial concerning the “Chinese Taipei” compromise, as it is sometimes referred to.

Regarding the 7/31/2021 editorial “World waking up to fallacy of ‘Chinese Taipei’ compromise” (https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4261329), appeasement of China runs deeper than “what’s in a name?”, though one certainly hopes the world stands up to the CCP’s evil intent sooner than later.

Taiwan’s dilemma begins with the Kuomintang’s (“KMT’s”) refusal to abandon its canard it somehow continued to be the government of China after fleeing China following its loss to Mao’s ruthless Communist Party and regime in 1949. Jimmy Carter betrayed Taiwan in the twilight of his erstwhile presidency (one of the worst in US history) 1n 1979 by “derecognizing” the “Republic of China” (KMT in Taiwan) and recognizing the People’s Republic of China, without consultation with the US Congress. Congress shortly thereafter overwhelmingly passed the Taiwan Relations Act preserving aspects of the relationship between the US and Taiwan. The US’s One China Policy “acknowledges” China’s position there is only one China of which Taiwan is a part, but does not necessarily agree with China’s position. President Reagan bolstered the US position on Taiwan with “Six Assurances” to mitigate Carter’s appeasement (betrayal).

Since then Taiwan has been whipsawed between the Communist Party’s lie and the KMT’s equivalent lie (manifested in the admitted prevarication called the “1992 Consensus”). This has led to a 60-year odyssey for Taiwan from oppression under KMT martial law in Taiwan to free democratic elections to almost constant onslaught from the CCP mortified at Taiwan’s highly successful and free capitalist democratic system. The CCP continues to deny the existence of the very real independent nation of Taiwan and the plain fact Taiwan functions completely outside Communist China. Nothing scares Communist China more than an independent democracy a stone’s throw from its craven totalitarianism.

Simply put, Taiwan is not China, China is not Taiwan, Taiwan is Taiwan, yet the UN is willing to sacrifice the democratic freedom and human rights of 23 million Taiwanese in the name of appeasement and good relations with the world’s most dangerous and evil genocidal regime, Communist China.

I blame my country for some of this. The United States has had its share of weak and appeasing Presidents, such as Carter and Clinton and in particular Obama (I dubbed his policy towards evil “Oppeasement” and his lurch to the far left “Obamunism”), and now Biden, who has obvious cognitive deficits, and daily struggles to navigate between his party’s wish to continue Obama’s Oppeasement policies and the huge successes of President Trump’s China policies and other foreign policy (e.g., Mid-East peace).

I applaud the previous administration’s sale of arms to Taiwan, upgrading the AIT (American Institute in Taiwan, a/k/a American Embassy), allowing higher level contacts between the US and Taiwan, and its treatment of Taiwan for all intents and purposes as an ally, and treatment of China for all intents and purposes as a real and present danger to democracy and human rights around the world, and, in effect, as an ‘enemy’.

Traditionally, the US Congress, both houses, are almost always unanimous in favor of Taiwan. It’s just unfortunate when graduates of the ‘Neville Chamberlain School of Foreign Policy and Appeasement’ are in office in the U.S. (Obama in particular), the U.S. is not very influential. Europe has elevated appeasement of evil around the world to a science (such that when the U.S. locks horns with regimes such as the CCP in China, or Iran, some European leaders hop on the first plane to see how many Airbuses the ‘enemy’ will buy).

The UN Chinese Taipei “compromise” (I detest calling it a compromise, it should be called the “Chinese Taipei Lie and Betrayal” because that’s what it is) is a typically useless and failed policy of a United Nations that almost NEVER actually deals with evil until it completes its evil purpose, be it war or genocide or terrorism, and then only 20-40 years later. An example of this is the now 60-year slow-motion genocide in Tibet that has occurred since 1959 to dislodge the Dali Lama, inhale and digest the Tibetan religion and land and natural resources, and vomit out a completely fake CCP Communist Party version of Tibet.

The UN has been virtually silent and impotent from the day in the 1950s when China invaded Tibet to when it poisoned the Panchen Lama and then kidnapped the small child appointed the new Panchen Lama by the Dali Lama, China having done so as its first steps in the Sinicization of Tibetan religion and the whole of Tibet. Now China is committing genocide against Uyghurs and again the UN is both silent and especially impotent.

I point this out because it explains why the UN, supposedly the bastion of freedom and human rights throughout humanity, is often impotent towards evil to an embarrassing extent (to wit, the whitewash report by WHO on the Coronavirus in February 2020 – read it if you don’t believe me, it reads like the CCP wrote it – oh, they did). Hence, we have the lie that is “Chinese Taipei”, because the UN cannot deal with its wayward evil member Communist China, which has been laughing at the UN every day since at least 1959. Keep this in mind – appeasement has never been a successful foreign policy for any nation in human history – the appeaser always loses. It’s why electing appeasers president in America is a dangerous thing not only for America, but for the world.

Nor do I laud the wayward notion proposed by Kissinger and Nixon that opening up the West to China would somehow change Communist China into a member of the democratic system with human rights and freedom. There has never been a communist regime in human history that did not have “evil” in its middle name, or provided democracy, human rights or freedom to its people, current popular fantasy and prevarication to the contrary notwithstanding.

Whatever greatness China’s 5,000-year culture provided has been sullied by the CCP’s 72 years of darkness, oppression, death and genocide. One can only hope at some point the CCP canard will fall in on itself and something better will rise up. If the CCP’s 1,000-year dream comes to pass, we might just as well all go to Mars. It would be safer on Mars than here under a global Chinese Communist regime.

Taipei Times Uncensored

I wrote and posted at the Taipei Times for almost 20 years. When I wrote a comment in the Taipei Times criticizing China for lying about the Wuhan Virus, and then lying about lying about the virus, and when I criticized Tedros for being the lapdog of the Chinese Communist Party for his heaping of oodles of praise on China for its “handling” of the virus, and the WHO’s official policies which inevitably suppressed the initial dangers of the virus in order to mollify Communist China for fear it would cut off the WHO’s access to facts on the ground, I was kicked off Facebook, though my post was published on the Taipei Times website without any issue. Facebook has been censoring comments critical of Communist China and/or Tedros and/or the WHO. As a consequence, I am unable to post at the Taipei Times or comment on any of the articles published there. I wrote to the editor to ask that the Taipei Times provide other access to posting, but thus far no changes have been made. After almost 3 months of being banned, I have decided to post my comments on the Taipei Times here under the title “Taipei Times Uncensored” instead of at the Taipei Times website because in order to comment or post there, you must have a Facebook account, and only a Facebook account. This in effect allows Facebook, which has previously had a pro-Communist Party approach, to censor the posting and comments at the Taipei Times, one of the world’s only pro-Taiwan news organizations. That is a tragic turn of events.

In the Taipei Times on June 6th on Page 8, an editorial was published entitled “States Risk Public’s Violent Anger”, written by Nigel Li, a student at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. The first major mistake in the premise of the article is somehow conflating what is happening in the United States with either the Hong Kong protests, or with action taken by any number of totalitarian states against violent protests. There can be no comparison between the democratic system of government and justice in the United States and those dictatorships, where democracy and justice are unknown. Because the United States has one of the most objective legal systems in the world, and a strong constitution protecting freedom and justice, especially under the First Amendment and the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, there is no need for violence except to wreak havoc or cause chaos, which is the objective of anarchy and revolution, two features of the current socialist/communist wing of the Democratic Party, pushing the Democratic Party run districts so far to the left it has become frightening. Thus every opportunity to cause chaos has been fully supported and in fact instigated by the Democratic Party, including the current riots regarding the death of George Floyd in police custody, which have been taken over by the extreme left.

Anyone familiar with the political climate in the US should by now understand the fear of the Democratic Party that the Wuhan Virus will be mostly resolved in the next few months, that the economy may come roaring back, and that these juggernauts will make it impossible to defeat the incumbent president, Donald Trump. Thus, racial chaos and anarchy is helpful the Democrats believe, to their cause. However, the Democrats are completely tone deaf because they still do not understand the extraordinarily high percentage of Americans who support the protests and yet loathe the riots, and can understand the difference. The calls by the Democrats to “defund the police” is simply another leftist wet dream to leave the state undefended in the face of the anarchy and socialist/communist revolution currently being instigated. Left up to the Democrats, any conservative who doesn’t use the latest leftist approved language should be arrested, but those who loot, steal, sell drugs, commit assault, murder or commit other felonies should not even be arrested, hence “defund the police”. But there are very few in the US who want to go down that road, and the cacophony in the media, which is overwhelmingly in opposition to the President, makes it seem the country is united in opposition to the president and hostile to the police. The left made the same mistake in 2016 and were shocked they lost the election. They are in for another rude awakening.

Secondly, “journalists” (in quotes here because almost all of the liberal press have been reduced to propaganda writers for the Democratic Party, not journalists) should not conflate protests and violence in the United States with those things in totalitarian countries, like Communist China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, and other dictatorships or with the life in Taiwan during the KMT rule, when it inevitably tried to deliver Taiwan into Communist China’s orbit permanently. There is a system of law and justice in the US which has been a model for the developed world for more than 200 years. Protests and even riots against the totalitarian rule of the KMT were justified. If anything, the socialist/communist wing of the Democratic Party is far more like China, the old Soviet Union, Cuba or Venezuela than like the US or Taiwan.

As for racial justice in the United States, the Democratic Party was the party I might remind you of slavery in the United States until Republic Party President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves with his Emancipation Proclamation and the success of the Civil War in America in the 1860’s. Moreover, the Democratic Party was hardly the party of justice for blacks in the US or for civil rights until the 1960s, and then the Democratic party embarked on a process to buy the votes of minorities in the US through welfare and other programs and to basically establish institutions of government that would spend the next 60 years keeping minorities dependent on welfare and similar programs in order to maintain their voting power. This prevails until today, and we are witnessing yet another step in the process of using race as a justification for anarchy.

When the Democratic Party lost to President Trump in 2016, it was shocked and dismayed, and has spent the past 4 years attempting a coup by a thousand cuts, beginning with a impeachment based on phantom charges of so-called Russian Collusion (failed coup), and then coming up with issue after issue as attempts to justify impeaching the President (all failed). The threshold for impeachment was lowered to ridiculous levels in the US by the desperate Democrats, and their willingness to try anything and everything to unseat the President has possibly damaged the US institution of government permanently.

When impeachment failed, the Democrats decided to use the pandemic as a new justification for criticism of the President and for renewed calls for impeachment, despite it being clear China and the World Health Organization at China’s behest misled the world on the origins of the Wuhan Virus. That failed as well. When the pandemic was turning the corner, cases and deaths dropped to far lower levels, and the economy was on the verge of reopening, the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer engaging in brutal force provided yet another opportunity for the Democratic party to interrupt the recovery by encouraging and supporting weeks of chaos and riots, including murder, violence and looting. The Democratic party, always the party that thrives on chaos, dead bodies and the promise of government money, is now calling for “defunding” the police (whatever the hell that is), and basically reducing the US to a nation without the ability to enforce its law. That is of course the end aim of a party wishing to foment a socialists/communist revolution. In order to do that, the police must be neutered.

On the issue of race in the US, I don’t know what “institutional racism” is. Prominent black leaders (including President Obama) and commentators have for years advised the black communities that single father households and persistent crime do far more to keep blacks from breaking out of ghettos and poverty than racism (“More than half of all black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled — doubled — since we were children.”). There is no doubt racism exists, and there is no doubt blacks die at higher rates from gun violence. But the overwhelming number of deaths of blacks by gun violence are not at the hands of white police, or even white shooters, but at the hands of other young black men (over 80%, or more). These statistics are hard to dig out, as the prevailing statistical analysis (to support the Democratic Party narrative of institutional racism) is the number of black victims, not the number of black perpetrators. President Obama over his 8 years at President of the US did nothing to address this “black on black” crime, or the single father home in over 50% of black families, and the effect that has on sons and daughters. The welfare system designed by Democrats, that is paying money to families with a single mother with children and no partner, also encouraged these developments in single parent homes. Obama did speak of this problem a few times between 2008 and 2014, but his administration did nothing to address it. “In 1960, the year before Obama was born, 22 percent of black children lived with single parents. In 1968, the number rose to 31.4 percent. By 2006, the 1960 percentage had more than doubled to 56 percent.” [Politifact fact check].

What makes the US different from totalitarian nations like China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, N. Korea, Iran and many others is the US has a well-defined system of law and justice in effect and . The police involved in the George Floyd matter have been arrested and will be charged, and tried. They will be permitted to make a defense and a jury will decide their guilt or innocence when all of the facts are known. This does not take place in dictatorships.

The left at this moment does not wish for there to be a trial. They wish for there to be a lynching, and steps in that direction are censorship (e.g. if anyone questions BLM, they are censored), disbanding the police, controlling the populace to conform to the Democratic party’s ideology, changing history and destroying historical icons (e.g. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, John Kennedy, Andrew Jackson, and many many others), pulling down statues and monuments, desecrating the US national flag and National Anthem, imposing new language and banning common language (Drew Brees, a celebrated NFL Quarterback spoke about disagreeing with anyone desecrating the flag or the anthem, and he was pounced on by the MSM and the BLM movement, and forced to retract his statement – oddly, his statement is supported by a huge overwhelming majority of Americans). These things are happening now, and have happened before in every instance where socialist/communist revolutions occurred. Those revolutions were accompanied by millions and millions of deaths (in Cambodia over 1.5 million, in Communist China at the hands of Mao between 50-80 million), commonly of professionals, including lawyers, teachers, and others, and murder of capitalism, replaced by state control over every aspect of life. This is what the Democratic Party now seeks, as it is unhappy with a majority of American’s rejecting the Party’s extremist views on most aspects of American life, especially free speech.

The world should be quite worried. If the Democratic party prevails, the US will withdraw as it did under Obama, Taiwan and Israel will be under assault, and Europe will be required to lead the world, and it has demonstrated over and over and over, even today, it does not have the backbone to stand up to Russia, China, Iran, and many other nations determined to resist freedom as a way of life and destroy the West, and lacks the morals or the will or the ability to protect Taiwan or Israel. The world needs the US to be the defender of human rights and freedom, because frankly there is no one else on Earth suited to it or capable of doing it.

Happy Birthday, America

Happy Independence Day.

Today, July 4th, our great country’s birthday, was in large part created by the words of Thomas Jefferson, who later became 3rd President of the United States. He said “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These words have guided our nation for over 240 years, leading us towards a more perfect democracy and freedom. The U.S. has stood for so long as a beacon of liberty to the world, and woe to those who would deny liberty.

There are those among us in the U.S. today who are trying mightily to destroy whatever history the United States has, to rewrite it, pervert it, throw down our heroes and establish a terrible rule of fascism and political correctness that threatens those very words. I reject those who unfairly and errantly view those great leaders, like Thomas Jefferson, who lived hundreds of years ago by the standards we see today, which in very large part arose over the course of two hundred years from the very foundation created by Jefferson, among others, for their right to pursue those liberties in the first place. It is not only ironic, but it is hypocritical in the extreme.

I am certain there are those who will say I must be a racist because I disagree with the Colin Kaepernick narrative of despising his flag and his country, and those of his supporters. I also reject this label, a popular way of using race to taint any argument with which they disagree. I have never been and will never be a racist, and anyone, of any color or creed, or race or religion who know me know that is true. I love my country, the nation to which my ancestors fled in the midst of an earlier genocide against them, and they fled to pursue “Life, Liberty and …Happiness”. They struggled and strove and a few generations later their progeny succeeded in realizing that dream. The hatred we see by some today against tradition and history is a very common theme in fascism, where destroying history is one of the first steps in imposing properspeech, properthink, properact. We are midway through 2019 and I wake up every day and find we seem to be stuck in 1984. (by way of example, I will never purchase another Nike product until the company apologizes to America for refusing to use Betsy Ross’s flag on this very important day in our Nation’s history, because Colin, an idiot, finds it objectionable).

God Bless America, the greatest nation on Earth (despite what the twisted NYTimes thinks).

And God bless Israel and Taiwan, two democracies and free nations that also stand as beacons in their regions of liberty and justice, despite enemies that would destroy them because of those very achievements.

Papal Appeasement of Beijing Can Only Lead to the End of Another Religion, Considering the Fate of Tibet

The Pope may figure that 2,000 years of Catholicism can stand against any threat, but Papal appeasement of Communist China this week is a very slippery slope against a ruthless, officially atheist regime in a culture that has 5,000 years of imperial history and intrigue, and strategic planning that covers centuries, not years or even decades. China wrote the book on war and such strategies 500 years before Christianity even existed. Yet this week, the Pope actually allowed Beijing a say in the appointment of bishops to its Communist Party Patriotic Catholic Church, an irony itself considering the Party is officially atheist, and in doing so implicitly approved of the existence of this alternate Catholic universe for tens of millions of Chinese Catholics, who may now feel the Pope threw them under the bus. Atheism hasn’t stopped the Party before from destroying a religion.

In Monday’s Taipei Times, Page 6, October 1, 2018 in an editorial by John J. Tkacik entitled “The Vatican’s ‘provisional accord’ with Beijing”, there are 4 pages and yet the article not nearly captures the alarm I have for these developments. One need only look at Tibet to see how well Beijing plays with religions within its reach. I think recalling the sordid history of Beijing’s kidnapping and rape of the Tibetan religion is warranted to demonstrate Beijing’s nefarious intentions. Why does no one raise this issue to sound the clarion of the danger to any religion, and any sovereign nation within Beijing’s sights?

For those who have forgotten or do not know, in Tibetan Buddhism, when the Dalai Lama dies, the Panchen Lama is the one who finds the reincarnated soul of the Dalai Lama in a Tibetan child, who then become the Dalai Lama, educated and mentored by the Panchen Lama.

When the Panchen Lama dies, it is the Dalai Lama who finds his reincarnated soul in a child in Tibet, and that child becomes the next Panchen Lama.

When China crushed Tibet, just before the Dalai Lama and his administration left Tibet, Beijing understood that if they controlled the Panchen Lama, they would control Tibetan Buddhism, including the appointment of the next Dalai Lama. So, Beijing first poisoned the sitting Panchen Lama in 1989, just before the Tiananmen incident. At the time, the head of the Tibetan region was Hu Jintao, whom you might recall later became the President and leader of China until Xi replaced him.

Once the Panchen Lama was killed, the Dalai Lama was forced to find the new Panchen Lama reincarnated in a child, and did so, finding a child in the hinterlands, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, when he was 6 years old. Shortly thereafter, the child Panchen Lama, 6 years old, was kidnapped by Beijing, and he has not been seen since. Beijing often says he is happily living with his family in a secret place, but since he has never been seen again, it is reasonable to assume Beijing murdered the child and his family. The Dalai Lama indicated he had information that the real Panchen Lama is still alive, but has not given more specific information.

But that was not the end of the story. Beijing thereafter appointed their own Communist Party Panchen Lama, and that person has now served as fake Panchen Lama for twenty years. Since the Panchen Lama chooses the next Dalai Lama, you can see that Beijing will have a Communist Party fake Panchen Lama appoint a Communist Party fake Dalai Lama, ending Tibetan Buddhism. Thus Communist China has waited these 29 years so far for the Dalai Lama to die, so they can completely rule Tibetan Buddhism, making it essentially like the Patriotic Catholic Church, a Communist Party church. How moronic is it to have an official Communist Party Church in a country that is officially atheist?

The U.N. has stood silently by as there have been calls since 1959 to stop the genocide in Tibet. Beijing has sent millions of Han Chinese there to carry out eugenics to dilute Tibetan culture, and has kidnapped the chain of command for the Tibetan religion. When the Dalai Lama dies, Tibetan culture will die with him.

Knowing this, why would the Pope believe China has any intention whatsoever of allowing a freer Catholic church? Every Bishop appointed by Beijing is a Trojan Horse, because technically each can become a Cardinal, and a Cardinal can become Pope. With the blackmail, extortion and bribery that is Beijing’s typical means of working with anyone, it is easy to see how the Pope may have inadvertently killed the Church. China can wait many, many years to kill an institution that constitutes a threat to it – China invaded Tibet in 1959, 59 years ago, and has unfolded its plan to kill off the Tibetan religion by kidnapping it.

Good luck to the Vatican. Appeasement of China is basically the same as gaining permission to die.

Bloomberg’s latest anti-Israel editorial is not only surprising, it is inane – Bloomberg says Israel is 100% responsible for the plight of Palestinians, not Hamas, not the PLO, not Abbas

Don’t look for the words Hamas, PLO or Abbas in the latest anti-Israel editorial offered by Bloomberg in the August 21, 2018 edition of the Taipei Times on P.9 entitled “The Palestinians cannot keep living under Israeli apartheid” penned by Hussein Ibish.

How is it possible to write a 3 page article about the “Palestinians'” misery and not mention the word “Hamas” or the term “PLO” or the name “Abbas”, lingering President of the PLO since 2005 (is there an election in sight)? The “Palestinians” are under the heel of those organizations and that man, not Israel. Israel affords more rights to its Arab citizens than most other Arab countries afford their own citizens. Tens of billions of dollars of aid to the Palestinians are wasted each year on terrorism, bombs, tunnels, brainwashing and corruption, and not to schools, hospitals, education and the betterment of the “Palestinian” people. Hamas and the PLO are dedicated to keeping the “Palestinian” people poor and wretched so that someone can write an article like this. In Bloomberg no less. What a travesty.

Golda Meir, President of Israel said 60 years ago “Peace? We will have no peace with the Arabs until they love their children more than they hate us.” Until they educate their children to be better and stop teaching them to hate Jews, the ultimate racism and Antisemitism in the world, there will be no solution. Israel’s motto is Never Again and it means Never. Ever. Surrounding nations should look to Israel as an example of how to have a successful democratic country in the midst of a sea of tyranny. Israel took a desert and turned it into an oasis. The Palestinians took an oasis and turned it into a desert, and now weep for living in a desert – like a child who murdered his parents and throws himself on the mercy of the Court as an orphan, seeking sympathy. The path to peace runs through Gaza and the PLO, not through Jerusalem. There is no negotiating peace with people who do not want peace, only genocide against the Jews once more. Israel, like Taiwan, is a unique nation, in Israel’s case fighting alone against a sea of racism, and in the case of Taiwan, against international greed and addiction for Chinese lucre. Great people and great ideas persist in the midst of adversity. Israel and Taiwan will prevail.

The fact Mr. Ibish’s article argues for Israel to be prevented from being a Jewish state (among a surrounding and nearby 24 nations which are Islamic states or Arab states where Jews are not welcome) is telling. This is another stab at destroying Israel, with immigration if necessary. The problem of the “Palestinians” is not Israel, it is Hamas and the PLO, both corrupt, both happiest when the people are the most pathetic, their “governments” are oppressive, there are no human rights, no women’s rights, no freedom, no due process (due process in Gaza means summary execution at the pleasure and fiat of Hamas leadership) and no accountability (and oddly no mention of either of them in this 3 page article). Abbas was “elected” in 2005 and he is still in power after 13 years and the people have not benefited one single bit in all that time. When the PLO and Hamas are thrown out of governing the people, there will be hope for a future. As long as the world, the U.N. especially, and anyone who wishes to destroy the notion of a Jewish state continue to support the “Palestinians” as cannon fodder, there will be no peace. Israel is a tiny Jewish state in its historical homeland of more than 3,000 years, the one place in the world Jews can be safe. That will never change again. Never. Ever.

President Tsai’s Passive Demeanor Betrays Her Passion for Democracy, Justice and Freedom for Taiwan in the Shadow of Communist China’s Mortal Fear of Such Things

In Taiwan recently, much has been written on the second anniversary of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) inauguration as President, about the criticism of her policies and her apparently “low” ratings.

I wrote often of these things. President Tsai has to contend with undoing all the damage done to Taiwan by her predecessor, Ma Ing-jieou for 8 years, and by all those Chinese Nationalist Party’s (Guomindang or KMT) leaders before him, and doing so in 2 years has been impossible. She has been facing issues in Taiwan which are generational or historic in nature, and she is faced with criticism both for being too quick and too slow at the same time. I agree that there seems to be excessive dithering by her administration, but it is like choosing the frying pan or the fire, and there is danger in either direction.

Reform is change, and change is often unpopular, particularly in Taiwan. This explains why “maintaining the status quo” is often the most popular choice of the majority of the people, a matter of accepting the way things are, the way people can bear, the way to survive (even thrive, if possible). Most people are unwilling to accept risk, and there is risk on every possible side of every possible choice. Most critics though, on both sides, do not really offer much help (for instance, having yet another government body make some decisions on transitional justice, while the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee makes other decisions is definitely not a way to expedite justice – the results will never be popular for any KMT member, and there are enough KMT members in Taiwan to make a loud noise – many of us feel the Committee has been too ponderous, taking too long to effect transitional justice without the government prosecuting the people responsible for money laundering and fraud and other defalcations related to the KMT’s generations of theft from Taiwan), and simply do what is most common these days, which is just criticize.

President Tsai’s tasks are difficult. At some point she needs to be decisive, pursue the policies she believes in, be resolute and strong. Her tendency to be less emotional than some regarding her beliefs leaves many underwhelmed with her leadership. However, her stability can be reassuring if she can find a way to better communicate her passion to improve Taiwan’s and its people’s stature and health, and inspire Taiwanese to embrace a new path, finally resolve and throw off its 60 years of Party-state handcuffs, and step out into the world away from China and its persistent insult and injury, and get on with improving Taiwan’s already impressive accomplishments and stature, move out from under the shadow of Communist China, and establish new and enduring relations with the rest of the world.

But Taiwanese must realize this, and realize it well – electing KMT members will only result in reversing the great steps taken forward, bring Taiwan back into the death-embrace of Communist China, and kill Taiwan’s democratic freedoms and justice. The KMT will do this for a seat at the Communist Party table, having essentially mouthed the words of its dead leader Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) for decades while betraying every fiber of his hatred for communism by kneeling before the Emperor Xi as Taiwan previous President Ma Ing-jieou did before he left office, and sucking up to every single aspect of China’s evil plans for the world – all for $$ and KMT pride. Taiwanese must beware. There is a Lien Chan lurking in every corner of the KMT’s apparatus cackling and salivating at the chance to shake the hand of a Communist leader and get a pat on the head. “Good boy! Sit!”

Taiwan is Not Switzerland

In an article published in the Taipei Times (“Politicians warn against entering China-US spat” March 20, 2018, p. 3) members of the Foundation on Asia-Pacific Peace Studies appear to argue that Taiwan must navigate a neutral path between China and the United States to avoid further danger.

What? Uh, no matter how much these meek pundits wish to believe that Taiwan is Switzerland, it is not, and never will be in any universe I can think of (and by the way, Switzerland, while outwardly appearing to remain neutral during the Nazi regime, could not (or would not) resist in every respect, because it was defenseless except for the mountains making invasion difficult, and because financially Switzerland was able to benefit from the Nazi regime, while enacting harsh refugee laws against Jews fleeing the Nazis, essentially yielding to Hitler’s genocidal plans).

The arguments set out in the Foundation’s meeting are fallacious. First, the ideas that Taiwan should “create another path to interact with the two powers to ensure its security” or “Taiwan should not choose sides in the conflict between the US and China, but should instead interact positively with both countries” are insane. The only way to ensure its security is to ally with someone who provides security. Lets see — uh, one giant neighbor who wants nothing but to destroy your leadership, swallow you whole and kill all of your freedoms, and kill any who oppose it – or, a nation of laws and freedom sworn to oppose totalitarian regimes hell bent on world domination and who has promised by its own law to protect you from such aggression. Uh…truthfully I don’t see much of a choice. At all. Unless suicide is the target. (By the way the strategy of “we don’t want to piss off China” is not a viable strategy because it is in fact a noose that tightens each time China want to squeeze. Weakness is not a strategy, it is suicide with a ruthless and brutal regime as the Chinese Communist Party, now led by the Emperor Xi).

Let me reiterate – there is no scenario where getting closer to China protects Taiwan – none. Think Icarus.

Second, the statement that “The US until this year approached its relationship with China as a constructive partnership” is completely wrong – even if someone in the State Department used those exact diplomatic words, Communist China has, since 1949, been considered one of the primary enemies of America’s democratic roots and world peace (notwithstanding President Obama’s meekness and general wussiness, and softness, especially around Hu and Xi). If those pundits at the Foundation meeting don’t know that, everything they said is useless. “[A] strategic competitor,” is a polite way of saying “mortal enemy”. Duh.

Thirdly, this statement, especially by a Democratic Progressive Party member is inane: “Exports to China account for about 40 percent of Taiwan’s total — four times the volume of Taiwanese exports to the US — so it is necessary for Taiwan to interact with China, Hsu said.” Uh…I believe the policy of the current Tsai administration is Go South, which means, less China, more anywhere else. That is the way to deal with the dependence former President Ma spent 8 years constructing to prevent Taiwan from ever becoming independent. The job of the administration is to diminish reliance on China, not grovel. What’s with the grovelling?

“[The ruling party] cannot deny responsibility and the [deadlock] has to be resolved.” Does this sound as stupid to you as it sounds to me? Does Hsu not understand that Taiwan cannot resolve the deadlock as long as the DPP is in power unless it is willing to surrender its platform and principles because China will not accept the DPP and prefers the China-centric KMT party? This administration’s duty and mandate is to help Taiwan survive China’s aggression and hegemony.

“The US is also experiencing military confusion” – what? Confuse this gentlemen (you get my drift). If these “pundits” (I use the term quite loosely) want to make a strategic military decision based on a collision at sea, go ahead, it just proves their nonsense. The US still maintains the strongest military on Earth.

“In response to China’s growing power and the US’ diminishing influence, Washington has two options to counter China: launching a trade war against China or playing the Taiwan card with the newly legislated Taiwan Travel Act, which encourages visits between Taiwan and the US at all levels, Su said.” This is the dumbest statement of all. The US Congress has always supported Taiwan, not to diss China but to support a democratic ally in need of defense and support against a sworn US enemy. If these idiots believe the US Congress passed the act to goad China, they are more clueless than I thought. The act was unanimously passed by the US Congress to support and protect Taiwan. Geez. What’s wrong with these people?

““While many East Asian countries have adopted hedging strategies and maintained a relationship with the US and China simultaneously, only Taiwan takes a one-sided approach [to build rapport solely with the US],” Su said.” Uh….could it be because China has not threatened for 70 years to invade and kill any of the other East Asian countries? Again, duh. Why do these people even have a platform to speak?

Basically it appears to me there is one truth. The closer Taiwan gets to the United States (something the US has in recent Administrations had some difficulty with), the less likely China will be adventurous. The situation has been backwards for years. Instead of the US hesitating to get involved with Taiwan’s relationship with China (there is no relationship, only revulsion by more than 86% of Taiwanese), China should be wary of getting involved in Taiwan’s superb relationship with the United States. That is the way Taiwan stays protected. Taiwan should be looking for ways to reinforce that relationship, not distance itself or run away. An opportunity has been presented. China will whine and moan. So what? Taiwan should grab the chance and run with it.

Australia is Walking a Fine Line between America and Communist China – a Dangerous Game

“America will lose, and China will win. America will cease to play a major strategic role in Asia, and China will take its place as the dominant power.” This is from a White Paper published from Australia. Whoever said this is a flaming idiot. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy from people who are either sinophiles or interested in China’s ephemeral (and largely non-existent) markets, all subject to Communist China’s vast manipulation and regulation, peremptory, if necessary for the Party’s benefit. This fatalistic approach in Australia has caused it to adopt a basically very troubling suicidal trajectory for some time.

Referring to a well-written article by Sushil Seth, a commentator in Australia, which appeared in the Taipei Times on December 30, 2017, p. 8 (“Counterbalancing Chinese Leverage”), I have the following observations.

President Obama withdrew the United States from world leadership because he is a weak, insipid, feckless and appeasing idiot (and of course he is the most admired man according to Newsweek because everyone just loves a sensitive, kind, understanding America – until they need someone to defend them, then they want the American juggernaut at their side). He was most uncomfortable being the world’s most powerful man, and his mistaken belief that he could extend an open hand to the world’s worst regimes, betray our closest allies, and sing Kumbaya backfired, and in the horrible vacuum he left, Russia and China leapt in. It will take some years to get that back.

Let me be very clear about one thing. Donald Trump’s presidency is the child of President Obama’s failures. Trump would never have succeeded if Obama has not driven the US bus so far to the left and so far from its role in the world that it disappeared over the horizon. Now we are dealing with that. But for all of his own idiosyncrasies, and they are many, Trump’s unpredictability does have an advantage (similar to Ronald Reagan’s “power”) to intimidate and in some sense have an effect on rogues, who would be far more comfortable getting up in Obama’s face, than Trump’s, because they knew Obama would never pull any trigger, and they also deeply fear that Trump is just itching to pull any trigger (not that he will).

Congress is 100% behind the US presence in Asia, and while the American president traditionally pussyfoots around with Russia and Communist China, the Congress never does. It supports Taiwan by vast majorities, and would also support Australia and Japan and Korea to the same extent. However, Australia has elected leaders who have been vastly at odds with American policies, and that has caused some dissonance. Australia is playing perhaps a dangerous game of both sides, feasting at Communist China’s trough, and expecting the US to protect it within America’s enormous penumbra.

Like it or not, the US is the only country in the world that can contain the likes of Communist China and Russia, North Korea and Iran and Syria, and Turkey, and the Arab world, and all of the other hot spots which pop up all over at any given time. For some reason I cannot understand, Australia has spent ten years pushing America away, and then complains that the US is not engaged in Asia. Huh? You cannot have it both ways. Australia is our deep ally, our long time friend, our brother in arms (sigh, sister, trans, whatever other words are necessary now). We hope for Australia to stop pushing the US away in order to feast in China, because the longer any country feasts there, the deeper into China’s trap they fall. It would behoove Australia to make up its mind what it is doing. If Australia thinks that a full blown democracy can become the ally of the world largest and most dangerous totalitarian government, good luck. You don’t stand a chance, because China’s trojan horse is already parked in Sydney and it has begun to manipulate the environment from within. You can do business with the Chinese Communist Party, you can trade with them, you can even smile with them, but you can never ever, ever, ever trust them.

The U.S. is not going anywhere. We are the only hope to help solve some of the world’s worst dilemmas. Europe is hopelessly indecisive and completely based on appeasement, which as we have seen, is useless against evil regimes, who simply lie, sign and breach (e.g. N. Korea, Iran, Communist China (already breaching the 50-year agreement with the UK regarding Hong Kong, as though Great Britain would do anything about it)).

I can tell you that out of 330 million people in the US, there are no more than a handful who believe “America will lose, and China will win”

These are tough times. Tough times call for resolute actions. Who else is going to be resolute? We’ve always relied on Australia to be right there by our side. We hope for that to continue for a long, long time as we love our friends from down under.

The Truth Today is Very Popular – How About some Diplomatic Truth? Jerusalem is the Capital of Israel, and Taiwan is not Part of China, and is Independent and Democratic!

For 50 years, the international community, including the impotent United Nations, has pretended the historical connection of 3,000 years between Jerusalem and Israel dating back to King David did not exist. The diplomatic convenience of appeasement, an act of allowing a lie to be treated as the truth, did nothing for peace.

For 50 years, the international community, including the impotent United Nations, has pretended that the historical separation since 1895 between China and Taiwan did not exist, and has been willing to pretend Taiwan is part of China, for “diplomatic purposes” (read this as “greed”). The diplomatic convenience of appeasement, an act allowing a lie to be treated as the truth, did nothing for peace, and has allowed China to grow in belligerence and hegemony, threatening the world with totalitarianism, “socialism with Chinese characteristics”.

Previous international policy on the Palestinians has failed miserably. In 1995, Congress passed the Embassy Act directing the US embassy be moved to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. President Clinton failed to sign the law, and it went into effect without his signature, his having failed to return it to Congress during the permitted time. However, Clinton, Bush and Obama all suspended the law for the past 25 years. Now, President Trump has actually complied with the law, saying out loud what has been true for 3,000 years.

Let the Palestinians and the rest of the world face the truth, the fact that Jerusalem and Israel are inextricably connected as they have been since King David declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel around 1,000 B.C. Appeasement has no chance of success, and hopefully the days of appeasing the Palestinians is over. Threatening violence in the middle-east because of this decision is nonsense. It is already burning in chaos with internecine conflict between Shia and Sunni, and many other peoples and sects clamoring for influence, territory and wealth for greedy leaders. Israel has nothing to do with this never-ending conflagration. All Israel ever did was turn a desert into an oasis, something the Palestinians should take note of, if they could put down their AK-47s, suicide belts and bombs, and Jew-hating long enough.

Let the world start acknowledging the truth that the Emperor Xi is naked, that he has no new clothes, that this is the truth, and that Taiwan is a free, independent, democratic nation of peace.

I hope today is the first day of the rest of our lives accepting the truth in diplomacy instead of decades of diplomatic lies and appeasement of evil. Let’s hope the American President’s fulfillment of his promise to the people of Israel is the beginning of “telling it like it is” and starting to get things done in solving the world’s worst conflicts. After the past 8 years of Obama’s polite appeasement and giving evil a pass in the name of false “peace”, it took less than 11 months and a little New York chutzpah to move America in the right direction. I hope it is just the beginning, and that China is next on the list to get a wake up call to something called “the truth”.

Appeasement is not a Viable Strategy with North Korea, as 25 Years of it has Shown

An article appeared in the Taipei Times on Sunday, October 29, 2017 on p. 6 regarding the North Korean crisis entitled Talking Must be the Only Answer by Ian Inkster http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2017/10/29/2003681233/3

Mr. Inkster very instantly and blithely dismisses the most important concept identified by President Trump, that “the US has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years,” at the outset of Inkster’s article. President Clinton made the horrific mistake of trusting North Korea in 1992, and the agreement with North Korea was violated by North Korea before the ink was dry. Years of Chinese prevarication, talking, and “statesmanship”, as Mr. Inkster lovingly suggests, in particular over the past 8 years by the great statesman President Obama, produced nuclear weapons, long range missiles and a hydrogen bomb. So much for statesmanship. As I mentioned before in my blog post, and here, and in others, President Reagan scared the Iranians so much they released the hostages they had held for a year within hours of his inauguration, after years of wimpiness from President Carter. Curiously we find ourselves in a similar position, with 8 years of extraordinary wimpiness from President Obama followed by a very loose and sometimes scary but apparently resolute cannon (despite not being the brightest bulb in the marquee of life).

Mr. Inkster refers to the Cuban Missile Crisis. He must have viewed it as a young teen through the foggy mist across the pond. From here, in New York, a hop, skip and jump from Washington, I saw and felt President Kennedy’s “bluster”, which Mr. Inkster says Kennedy did not display, but his spine, and his temerity, his willingness to meet move with move and show of strength with show of strength, and the backdoor channel ready to receive a message of contrition from Khrushchev is what made the Russians back down and get the missiles out of Cuba, not “statesmanship” alone. In those days, the US had 16 times as many nuclear weapons as the Soviets, and Khrushchev knew it. Were Kennedy instead Jimmy Carter or Barack Obama, Cuba would be a colony of the Soviet Union with nuclear missiles on our doorstep. Make no mistake. Kennedy played chicken well, and Khrushchev blinked, and then a basis for resolution was found. Junior knows the score. He is crazy but he is not an idiot. He looks for weakness and tries to exploit it. But like a rat, he has no desire to die.

In Europe, the strategy for everything has always been, compromise, compromise, compromise. Even with Hitler. Even with Russia. Even with Iran. Even with N. Korea. Particularly with China. It is this unwillingness to show strength to achieve compromise that has always led to horrible deals. I am not surprised by this (and Europe had a willing partner in Obama, whose foreign policy was taken directly from Europe’s playbook, which is why his foreign policy was reviled in the US, and loved abroad).

As soon as Trump spoke his mind (and the more unhinged he sounds, the better at present for strategic purposes) the European members of NATO were on their hands and knees begging for talks with N. Korea. To what end? To what compromise? To give a lunatic encouragement? Let an insane regime have a hydrogen bomb? There will be no resolution to this situation unless NATO grows a spine and plays its part (which is not begging, but rather trying to convince junior that Trump would love to test the US arsenal), and when North Korea weighs its options well, it will find a way to save face and back down.

And the answer is not relying on China. China has been playing the North Korea game for 25 years, playing every President and every administration and Europe for fools, just as the Palestinians have. It is a farce. Bullies only understand one thing. A punch in the nose, or the very real threat of one. Tea on the veranda is not the approach.