Taiwan powder keg

Former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton has called on his country to resume diplomatic relations with Taiwan. He believes that relations with the U.S. are so important to China that it will have to accept diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Taiwan. Many neocons are completely out of touch with reality, but Bolton is one of the most brain-damaged.

Still, some people believe that in the not too distant future, a war between China and Taiwan is likely to break out. (see: Richard C. Bush and Michael E. O'Hanlon's “A War Like No Other: The Truth About China's Challenge to America”) Now, O'Hanlon is also the guy who said things were improving in Iraq, the U.S. can still win and Bush is a hero. (see my post of August 9 below)

Moreover, you would assume these guys have a crystal ball, knowing perfectly well what is going to happen. Well, nobody has, so they are just hallucinating from inhaling too much neocon nonsense. You could certainly piece together some possible scenarios for the future. But “A War Like No Other” goes too far. The authors say they don't want to see a war between China and Taiwan, but they secretly hope that China would be seriously damaged and the U.S. could remain the overlord of the world.

They write that “a process can begin that, if mismanaged, can escalate out of control. It should not. But it could.” Yes, it could. But it is also very well possible that the Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Straight are clever enough to avoid it from happening. If war mongers like John Bolton would just shut up.

20 years after martial law

Tomorrow, 20 years ago on July 15, 1987 martial law was officially lifted in Taiwan. It had taken effect on May 20, 1949, right after the Nationalist army of Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan. That means martial law was in effect for more than 38 years. All those who chant the praises of Taiwan as a beacon of democracy in the Chinese world should not forget the long years of martial law, when in fact there was more freedom in mainland China than in Taiwan. Hundreds were executed and thousands imprisoned, many of them innocent. Chen Shui-bian's DPP even claims that 8,000 were executed and 200,000 imprisoned, although the KMT disputes those figures.

Then president Chiang Ching-kuo gave the order to lift martial law six months before he died. The lifting of martial marked the understanding of the Taiwanese authorities that “suppression of the Communist bandits” and “retaking the mainland” would fail. While this could of course be considered to be progress, Chiang's successor Lee Teng-hui gradually steered Taiwan on a course of independence, thereby risking an armed confrontation with the government of the People's Republic of China. So for 38 years under martial law, the authorities who had fled to Taiwan tried (in vain) to reconquer the mainland and topple its government and in the 20 years since, their successors are trying to split Taiwan from the mainland. In both cases they tried to provoke an armed conflict with the legal government of China in Beijing.

Perhaps the time has come for reconciliation, the return of Taiwan under the rule of the government in Beijing. That would be even more significant than the abolition of martial law. Taiwanese premier Chang Chun-hsiung said imposing martial law was a historic blunder that can be pardoned but cannot be forgotten. Declaring Taiwanese independence would be even a bigger blunder, which could not be pardoned nor forgotten.

Shameless traitor

Former Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui likes to portray himself as a staunch patriot fighting for the rights of the Taiwanese people against the big bully, China. Today he showed his real face, not as a patriot at all, not as a Chinese, not even as a Taiwanese, but as an agent of war-time Japanese imperialism.

His elder brother actually died in 1945 fighting in the service of the Japanese emperor. Now, more than 60 years later, Lee Teng-hui traveled to Tokyo to pray at the Yasukuni Shrine, where 2.5 million war dead are honored, including 14 convicted top war criminals and hundreds of thousands of Japanese imperial troops. The dead are not just “remembered”, they are considered to be deities who died in the service of the Japanese Empire. (CNN: Taiwan's Lee visits Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine)

China and South Korea rightly complain when the Japanese prime minister visits the shrine. Current PM Shinzo Abe has not dared to visit yet since assuming office so as not to derail Sino-Japanese relations.

Now, here comes the Taiwanese traitor Lee Teng-hui praying at the same shrine... Over the years, the Chinese government has used several rather unflattering words to describe Lee. By visiting Yasukuni, he proved beyond any doubt that the Chinese government was right.

Lee said the visit was a “private, family event”. Being a traitor can never be “private”.