{"id":1432635,"date":"2024-01-08T06:37:39","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T06:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=310173"},"modified":"2024-01-08T06:37:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T06:37:39","slug":"an-american-appeals-to-taiwan-dont-vote-to-be-ukraine-2-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/01\/08\/an-american-appeals-to-taiwan-dont-vote-to-be-ukraine-2-0\/","title":{"rendered":"An American Appeals to Taiwan: Don\u2019t Vote to be Ukraine 2.0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAmerican bullets, Taiwanese blood\u201d is an Evil Bargain<\/em><\/p>\n

On January 13, the people of Taiwan, officially designated the Republic of China (ROC), will elect a new President and unicameral legislature known as the Legislative Yuan.\u00a0 The election hinges on the question of Taiwan\u2019s policy toward the Mainland, the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). That policy will have a profound impact on East Asia \u2013 and the world.<\/p>\n

The major threat to peace in the area is a move by Taiwan to break with the One China Policy and declare independence from the Mainland.\u00a0 The PRC\u2019s policy is to reunite with Taiwan by peaceful means sometime in the future – barring a formal declaration of independence by Taiwan, which could well lead to war.<\/p>\n

Taiwanese Opinion on Seceding from the Mainland<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do the people of Taiwan feel about secession versus the status quo?\u00a0 In 2023 polling<\/a> by Taiwan\u2019s National Chengchi University\u2019s Election Study<\/a> a record 32.1% said they preferred to \u201cmaintain the status quo indefinitely\u201d (the largest category<\/em>); 28.6% chose the status quo to \u201cdecide (Taiwan\u2019s fate) at a later date\u201d (the second largest category); 21.4% opted for the status quo with a view to \u201cmove toward independence\u201d; and 6.0% , the status quo with a view to \u201cmove to unification.\u201d\u00a0 A total of\u00a0\u00a0 88.1% favor the status quo for now, and 60.7% (the top two categories) want to maintain the status quo with no specific goal for the future!<\/em><\/p>\n

In contrast only 1.6% want \u201cunification as soon as possible\u201d and only 4.5% \u201cindependence as soon as possible.\u201d\u00a0 On this issue, the US has failed to win the hearts and minds of Taiwanese.<\/p>\n

How Does the Presidential Election Stack Up so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three main parties contending for the Presidency are the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP); the Kuomintang (KMT) and the relatively new Taiwan People\u2019s Party (TPP).\u00a0 The Presidential candidates are William Lai (DPP); Hou Yu-ih (KMT); and Ko Wen -je (TPP). Whereas the leaders of the DPP are bent on independence, hostile to the PRC and very close to the US. foreign policy elite, the other two seek to develop understanding with the Mainland and preserve the status quo.<\/p>\n

What does polling about the election tell us?\u00a0 The DPP is the front runner now but by an ever decreasing margin. A very recent poll<\/a> on January 2 gave DPP\u2019s Lai 38.9%, KMT\u2019s Hou 35.8% and TPP\u2019s Ko 22.4%. The combined vote for the Mainland friendly parties, the KMT and TPP, was 58.2%.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not the end of the story.<\/p>\n

In Taiwan\u2019s system, victory requires only a plurality.\u00a0 Consequently, as a result of the opposition\u2019s split between KMT and TPP, the front-running DPP could win.\u00a0 Nevertheless, the opposition should easily command a majority in the Legislative Yuan providing some brakes on the DPP.<\/p>\n

Opinions on US intervention in armed conflict over Taiwan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Turning to American opinion on possible armed conflict in Taiwan, the latest of surveys<\/a> by the Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs tells us : \u201cAs in past surveys, a majority of Americans (56%) oppose sending US troops to Taiwan to help the Taiwanese government\u2026\u201d <\/em>(Italics, jw)<\/p>\n

That percentage will surely increase as the war drags on as has happened<\/a> with the Ukraine proxy war.\u00a0 Sentiment against more funding for Ukraine is growing in Congress, especially among Republicans, a reflection of growing anti-interventionist sentiment in their base.<\/p>\n

How does the American political class feel about foreigners who die for the goals of the US?\u00a0 Here are the widely quoted words<\/a> of the minority leader of the US Senate, Mitch McConnell: \u201cNo Americans are getting killed in Ukraine. We\u2019re rebuilding our industrial base (for producing weapons, jw). The Ukrainians are destroying the army of one of our biggest rivals. I have a hard time finding anything wrong with that<\/em>\u201d(italics, jw).\u00a0 He does not mention the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who are being sacrificed to \u201cweaken\u201d Russia, to use the phrase of the US Secretary of Defense. This disregard for human life is cruel and barbaric in the extreme.<\/p>\n

A US anti-China proxy war in Taiwan \u2013 \u201cAmerican bullets, Taiwanese blood\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

As with Ukraine, a proxy war in Taiwan would be waged with \u201cOur bullets, their blood\u201d in the words of one Oliver North<\/a>.\u00a0 In fact the DPP has already made a decisive step in the direction of turning young Taiwanese into U.S. cannon fodder by extending the period of compulsory military service<\/a> from 4 months to one year, beginning in 2024.\u00a0 That is the \u201cblood\u201d part.<\/p>\n

As for the \u201cbullets\u201d part, Taiwan has buying billions in weapons<\/a> from the US since 1979.\u00a0 Recently the Biden administration began giving<\/em> weapons<\/a> to Taiwan, meaning American taxes pay for them.\u00a0 That is on top of the enormous expenditure on US bases, naval exercises and \u201cfreedom of navigation\u201d maneuvers. If fighting erupts and the expenditures grow, how long before America tires of paying and wants to opt out?\u00a0 After all the US is safely on the other side of the vast Pacific.<\/p>\n

The basic US plan seems to be to provoke the PRC into military action to harm its reputation in the eyes of its neighbors, encouraging them to build up their military and join US-led, anti-China alliances.\u00a0 If that does not occur, the US will not shrink from a false flag operation or an outright fabrication.\u00a0 Think of the fictitious Gulf of Tonkin<\/a> incident which won Congressional approval for Vietnam war that consumed millions of lives.<\/p>\n

On December 13, the people of Taiwan can take a big step to a peaceful future.\u00a0 If they vote for a government not captive to belligerent US foreign policy, many of us in America will be grateful.\u00a0 And perhaps their vote will inspire us to elect more anti-interventionists here in the US.<\/p>\n

The post An American Appeals to Taiwan: Don\u2019t Vote to be Ukraine 2.0<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAmerican bullets, Taiwanese blood\u201d is an Evil Bargain On January 13, the people of Taiwan, officially designated the Republic of China (ROC), will elect a new President and unicameral legislature known as the Legislative Yuan.\u00a0 The election hinges on the question of Taiwan\u2019s policy toward the Mainland, the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). That policy More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post An American Appeals to Taiwan: Don\u2019t Vote to be Ukraine 2.0<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":544,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432635"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/544"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1432635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1432637,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432635\/revisions\/1432637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1432635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1432635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1432635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}