No Bull About China and Taiwan
The Economist is one of the most influential and highly respected Western publications in the world. It is also subject to Western groupthink and propaganda.
Recently, The Economist published an article entitled, “How to avoid war over Taiwan.” It’s a mixture of bullshit and truth. I’m here to clarify the bull.
Every thinking person knows and understands that Western leaders, in collaboration with Western mainstream media, have been spreading immense propaganda about the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the looming China-Taiwan conflict.
So, in the interest of truth and objectivity, let’s go over The Economist’s faulty and biased statements…
No one can be sure how an invasion of Taiwan might start. China could use “grey-zone” tactics that are coercive, but not quite acts of war, to blockade the self-governing island and sap its economy and morale. Or it could launch pre-emptive missile strikes on American bases in Guam and Japan, clearing the way for an amphibious assault.
Total bullshit. China has repeatedly made it crystal clear that it seeks peaceful reunification with Taiwan.
However, if Western interference forces China’s hand, China will do whatever it takes to protect its territorial integrity.
War is no longer a remote possibility, because an unstated bargain has frayed. Since the 1970s America has been careful neither to encourage Taiwan formally to declare independence nor to promise explicitly to defend it.
America’s attitude has changed in recent years. It now encourages Taiwanese independence. Recent US Congressional visits to Taiwan are evidence of this. The continual arming of Taiwan in direct contravention of the Three Communiqués is evidence of this. The forming of military alliances against China is evidence of this (AUKUS, NATO).
President Xi Jinping has told the People’s Liberation Army to be ready for an invasion by 2027, says the CIA.
The false implication here is that China would initiate an invasion. There will be no invasion without Western interference.
It is pragmatic for China to prepare militarily. China understands what America is trying to do. Si vis pacem, para bellum. If you want peace, prepare for war.
President Joe Biden has said that America would defend Taiwan if China were to attack (aides say policy is unchanged).
But China won’t attack, unless provoked by America.
And public opinion has shifted in Taiwan, not least because of how China has snuffed out freedoms in Hong Kong.
Freedoms in Hong Kong have not been “snuffed out.” Hong Kong retains the same “one country, two systems” arrangement it had in 1997. The only difference is that now Hong Kong has a national security law that it was obligated to enact a quarter century ago but failed to do. The people in Hong Kong are as free as they’ve ever been.
The island is admirably liberal and democratic, and proof that such values are not alien to Chinese culture. It would be a tragedy if its people had to submit to a dictatorship.
More bullshit. Taiwan’s democracy is hardly admirable; it is quite dysfunctional. America is looking at Taiwan through rose-tinted glasses. This is ironic, given how dysfunctional US democracy is.
And the implication that China is a “dictatorship” is both disingenuous and ignorant. Just because the West disagrees with how China is governed does not make China a dictatorship.
Unfortunately, the potential common ground between America and China on Taiwan is shrinking. Somehow, the two rival systems must find a way to live together less dangerously.
It is the United States that is shrinking this common ground. It no longer respects the Three Communiquès. It no longer respects the One China principle. China’s position has not changed in half a century.
Why has the US changed its attitude towards China and Taiwan? There is only one reason: The United States needs an excuse to embroil China in a war in order to stifle China’s economic and military rise. The US wants to remain the #1 world hegemonic power.
