Saturday 13 January 2024

“PLA pledges to crush island separatism” | SCMP

The elections are today. Online here

What we don’t want in today’s Taiwan elections is a pro-independence party to win. We need a pro status quo party to win. Like Tsai Ing-wen, DPP replacement William Lai. But not Ko Wen-je of the People’s Party. Beijing sees the DPP as leaning to independence but have seen them in practice lean status quo. 

Some say this is surrender to Beijing. That it’s Appeasement. 

But it’s not. It’s acknowledgement of reality.  It’s called “not bringing on war for the sake of a word”. For Taiwan is already effectively independent. That’s as far as it can go. Don’t demand the actual word.

The best that Taiwan can be is what it is now. If it pushes independence there’s war. Which china will win. Especially with a feckless president in the White House. One too afraid to crush the Houthis, who are currently wreaking havoc with world shipping in the Red Sea, the Gulf.

Taiwan people: do from the Hong Kong riots of 2019. Pushing for independence, when we had every freedom of a democracy, we end up with a National Security Law foisted on us. For Taiwan it will be even worse.

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