Ifay Chang, columnist of the China-US Forum
Anti-communism is an ideological matter. Western developed countries advocate individual liberalism, pursue a democratic system based on individual interests and freedom, and promote the democratic model of popular elections, voting by citizens. Under the concept of governance that communism pays attention to the collective public opinion using consensus building process and focuses on basic citizens welfare, the western developed countries regard communism as hostile to democracy limiting individual freedom, so they are anti-communist and are unwilling to coexist with communism or learn from each other. The anti-communism became an international movement after the establishment of the Soviet Union creating a two polarized world. Eventually, the economic failure of the Soviet communist system under the Western economic sanctions strengthened the anti-communist ideology in the West.
Under the corrupt rule of the Qing Dynasty, China suffered from more than one hundred years of Western aggression and bullying. In the end, Chinese People's Revolution created a republic system in early twentieth century for China. The Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) competed for political power, resulting in the split across the Taiwan Strait, which was not without the interference of Western anti-Communist ideology and the communist Soviet. Therefore, the Chinese mainland led by the Chinese Communist Party is targeted as a communist country by the West, even though the Chinese Communist Party had differences from the Soviet communist organization and pursued its own path. China has five thousand years of culture and history and also has been inspired by the thoughts of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, father of modern China. China has always treasured her own historical background for developing her own political system, and many political scholars have debated and concluded that there is absolutely no need to blind copy any imperfect political system from the West for China, a nation with more than billion people. The West, led by the United States, has witnessed China's rapid rise and progress in many domains since the disintegration of the Soviet Union. However, the West not only did not have the willingness to jointly develop with China for prosperity, but also decided to oppose China and put all the anti-communist forces onto her.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, China has made very broad and comprehensive progress, including political reform, economy, military, science and technology, and space exploration. In contrast, the United States adopted an ill-conceived hostile policy to target China eventually openly identify China as her strongest competitor threatening the U.S. and began to fight against China in all aspects, which are more vicious than ideological opposition to China. The United States is a two-party political system, no matter which party is in power, when the United States is gradually caught up by China with advances whether in economic, social or military domain, she chooses to blame China for the U.S. problems or decline, instead of reflecting on the U.S.’s own actions. Therefore, the two parties in the United States have reached a consensus on the anti-China fight, and used their monopoly over the media's discourse power to discredit and suppress China's development. In fact, what the United States fights against China is not for the welfare of the American people but for the interests of the political party in maintaining its power and economic interests. For example, the trade tariff and sanctions against China actually hurts American people and industries just as much if not more than hurting China. However, the American people cannot be deceived forever, and sooner or later the people will wake up to facts. As an example, China just successfully constructed, launched and assembled her space station in space despite of the U.S. sanction. Hindsight tells us that accepting China's request to participate in the NASA led space program (life may end in 2023) may be far more beneficial than accepting any other nation on ideological basis.
The United States is a big and powerful country after all. Since World War II, she has established her position for leading the world. The U.S. has hundreds of overseas military bases and a large number of U.S. troops and military deployments in important geographical areas such as Germany, Japan, and South Korea. Although there is not a large number of U.S. troops stationed in Taiwan, the U.S. has made a significant investment for the purpose of influencing Taiwan's political and economic affairs. This can be seen in Taiwan's presidential elections, candidates must be blessed by the United States in order to win the presidential election. Therefore, the Taiwan regime (especially the current DPP) will be echoing with the U.S. China strategy, and the U.S. anti-China attitude or anti-China policies will directly affect Taiwan's political position. The United States once scolded Chen Shui-bian (2001-2008) as a troublemaker, and her moderate attitude towards Ma Ying-jeou's (2009-2016) mainland policy was closely related to the fact that the United States was experiencing the financial crisis (2008-) and depended on the Chinese mainland's economic support. Today, with the banner of anti-China raised prominently by Trump and Biden, the Tsai Ing-wen regime (2017-) had boldly moved towards anti-China and anti-Chinese, and her betrayal to Taiwan people’s ancestry for keeping her political power with the U.S. blessing all can be traced to the tempo of U.S. China strategy. Taiwan's resistance to China or anti-China actions are by no means for protecting the well-being of the Taiwanese people, rather it is solely for the interests of keeping the DPP in power. Under the influence of the United States, the opposition party KMT could not carve out its own independent road either. This is the tragedy of the Taiwanese people. Taiwan has the reputation of practicing democracy but its people cannot fulfill their own independent will.
Why anti-China? Anti-China for whose benefit? After understanding these questions, the citizens of the world and the people of Taiwan can start to make correct decisions about their own future. Even the American people will wake up one day. Of course, the Chinese people must continue to work hard for the rejuvenation of the great China! The prospect of creating a world of great harmony (Sun Yat-Sen's global view 世界大同) under China’s initiative such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is very bright!
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