China can learn from Taiwan
The following is an excerpt from an editorial this week in the Washington Post:
The election of Tsai Ing-wen as Taiwan’s president underlines the rapid and radical political divergence between the island country of 23 million people and Xi Jinping’s Communist China. Tsai, a 59-year-old legal scholar, became the first woman elected to lead an Asian country without the benefit of relation to a former male ruler, after an impeccably democratic campaign — Taiwan’s sixth presidential election since 1996 The gulf between Xi’s Stalinist-style humiliation of critics and Taiwan’s burgeoning liberalism does a lot to explain the victory of Tsai, whose party advocates Taiwanese independence. Current President Ma Ying-jeou worked assiduously to build cross-strait relations, culminating in a one-on-one meeting with Xi in November. But Taiwanese saw few economic benefits, and they worried about encroachment by Beijing on their freedoms.
To her credit, Tsai is not seeking to ad- vance the cause of independence; she says she wants to preserve the status quo and focus on strengthening the economy.
Predictably, the Xi regime’s statements have been far less reasonable. Beijing’s media labelled Tsai a “troublemaker” before the election; on election night all references to her and the election were purged from social media. China’s first official statement linked future co-operation to Tsai’s acceptance of the principle that Taiwan is part of “one China,” something she is unlikely to offer. Like Tsai, the Obama administration is saying it wants “the continuation of cross-Strait peace and stability.” If so, it should be urging Beijing to take up the president-elect’s offer to find a new formula for coexistence. Washington should make clear that it will respond to any attempt by China to intimidate the incoming government. And it should advise Xi that, by crushing domestic dissent and violating legal guarantees to Hong Kong, he is ensuring that pro-independence forces in democratic Taiwan will steadily grow.