Why Taiwan now—the situation of Taiwan today and global
expectations toward Taiwan
By Sugihara Seishiro
Former professor, Josai University
A nation unfit to be in the 21st century
I head the organization called the International Research Institute of Controversial
Histories (iRICH), which was established two years ago in 2018. On the establishmentof the Institute we posted a greeting in our website. Here is a part of it:
Currently in the 21st century, there still exists a nation that monopolistically rules via
one party or one family. Such a nation, in its attempts to maintain its authoritarian rule,grossly violates human rights domestically and busily engages in a policy of endlessoutward expansionism. Due to such national ambitions, the international order ishighly distressed. Such a one-party or one-family-ruled nation should not be allowed
to exist in the 21st century.
Nations in the 21st century should be totally transparent and accountable, and strictly
adhere to democratic political principles based on the free consent of the people, inwhich human liberty is respected, human rights are protected, the rule of law is duly
observed, freedom of the press is guaranteed and information disclosure is sufficiently
carried out so that history may be rightfully examined.
On the contrary, China, a one-party stated ruled by the Chinese Communist Party does
not allow individual freedom, rights or a democratic government. The Chinese
Communist Party, ignoring the people’s will, controls everything. There is no freedomof the press. Information which might pose a hindrance to Party’s rule is never disclosed.
China is clearly an authoritarian nation, with neither transparency nor accountability.
In such a totalitarian nation, unlike a free nation, it is necessary to forcibly apply
political power, which a free nation never needs to do. A party controlling the entire
nation, to keep itself in power, does not guarantee freedoms or rights to its own people
and adopts an aggressive expansionist overseas policy. In a vicious cycle, the people
thus oppressed and ruled by the one-party nation, support the nation’s aggressive1policies, partly to vent their frustration at the world. In this sense, an authoritarian state
is not a good for the people in it and equally unfavorable to the rest of the world.
The Chinese Communist Party in Chinese Civilization
Incidentally, is Chinese Communist Party authoritarianism because of communism or isit because Chinese civilization, for the past five thousand years, has always been
audacious and insolent?
The answer is evident when we look at the 1989 Tiananmen Square Incident. The manin power at the time, Deng Xiaoping, sent tanks against large-scale demonstrations
staged by students and young people who wished to democratize China and killed many
young protesters. Deng stated that, “If we concede now, the People’s Republic of Chinawill cease to exist.”
Deng Xiaoping reportedly lost political power three times in his lifetime. At the time ofthe Great Cultural Revolution, he was forced out of office and barely survived inshivering cold and hunger in the remote back country. Despite all the hardships heendured, he never learned of the inhumanness of Communist Party rule andcommunism.
The opposite of Deng Xiaoping was Mikhail Gorbachev of the Communist Party of theSoviet Union. Ever since Gorbachev’s summit meeting with United States PresidentRonald Reagan in 1986, he promoted a political movement, perestroika (reformation orrestructuring), and implemented glasnost (openness or information disclosure). He
revised the Constitution, acknowledged a multi-party political system and finallychanged the Soviet Union into a democracy. Gorbachev could have chosen to become
another dictator like Stalin if he wanted to. However, Gorbachev did not make thatchoice and when he took the top office, in a position to change the Soviet Union, hefocused efforts on eliminating inhumanness derived from communism and one-party
rule by the Communist Party.
What is the difference between Deng Xiaoping and Gorbachev? Deng Xiaoping lived
his life within a Chinese Civilization markedly characterized most by its cruelty. To him,
the inhumanity of the Communist Party was nothing. Therefore, he never thought muchof the inhumanity and cruelty ensconced in communism and one-party rule by the2Chinese Communist Party.
What is Chinese Civilization like?
According to historian Ko Bunyu (Huang Wenxiong) of Taiwan,１the Chinese conceptof a “nation” differs from that held by Western Civilizations. Even Western Civilizations
has empires with one group or another ruling over many ethnic groups. In principle, theconcept of a nation is that of a race, as a single cultural community holding a defined
territory and governing its territory.
However, in the Chinese Civilization, there is no such concept of a nation. There isinstead a relationship between tenshi (heavenly man) and tenka (the world underheaven). Tenshi is the entity that rules everything without restriction in tenka, whereinpeople live. The mightier the tenshi (ruler), the more people who fall under his rule, andthe larger the tenka expands—the tenshi’s rule over the people expands.
Generally, the political power is backed by physical strength, that is, military force.
Therefore, with power based on military force, anyone can become the ruler. In fact, inChinese history, the first Emperors of the great Han and Ming dynasties were both frompeasant families.
Under such a power-based tradition, struggles using forces decide who wins all theglory, becoming emperor, or who loses everything, including one’s own life. It is theultimate battle of life or death, and leads to an endless cycle of atrocious killing. It istrue that wars broke out often enough in the Western Civilizations. But seeing the utter
cruelty of wars, they developed international laws and systems to minimize suffering
caused by war. However, in China, war means either win and live or lose and die. The
number of casualties and atrocities committed in Chinese wars are far beyond thoseexperienced by Western Civilizations. Chinese Civilization is a “murderers’civilization.”
Such is the concept of the Chinese tenshi. Tenshi, being the master of everything, is notbound by laws. A promise made to others will be kept so long as it is beneficial to him.
Otherwise, he will find no need to keep such a promise. No one can blame tenshi for
nonchalantly breaking promises. The Chinese Government had promised Hong Kongthat it would maintain the policy of “one country two systems” for fifty years, which
3was agreed upon by the Governments of the People’s Republic of China and the United
Kingdom in 1997. With 27 years still left, China discarded its promise, declaring thatthe promise was as valuable as the paper it was written on. This act is understandable interms of an act of a tenshi, who is not obligated to others at all.
Secretary Pompeo’s speech supported by Manifest Destiny
On July 23 this year, United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo made a historicalspeech regarding U.S.-China policy at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library andMuseum in California.
Amidst the novel coronavirus crisis which first emerged in Wuhan, China, it is clear toeveryone that the world has suffered because of the pandemic. China, far from sounding
sorry and apological, is taking advantage in the midst of others’ suffering and is further
accelerating its hegemonical policy. Given the circumstances, Secretary Pompeo’sspeech demanding China end meddling was vital and necessary.
His nearly twenty-five minutes’ speech, titled “Communist China and Free World’sFuture”, will be remembered as one of the most important speeches in the first half ofthe 21st century.
In his speech, Secretary Pompeo pointed out that the enemy we face now is the Chinese
Communist Party and that China’s regime is a Marxist-Lenin regime, which is the rootof evil. However, he seemed to not recognize that the origin of the Chinese Communist
Party’s evil is Chinese Civilization. Since the Chinese Communist Party acts based on
Chinese Civilization, criticism of the Chinese Communist Party can be interpreted as
criticism against Chinese Civilization. In this manner, we come to the right conclusion
anyhow.
Certainly, we cannot fault Secretary Pompeo for not pointing to Chinese Civilization as
the source of the problem of the Chinese regime. Secretary Pompeo alone not fail tonotice the fundamental problem of Chinese Civilization. In fact, in the 20th century,
none of the American Presidents noticed the evil that is Chinese Civilization.
President Franklin Roosevelt, who led World War II, in particular lacked comprehension
when it came to Chinese Civilization. He thought that Japan was the sole problem
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regarded the conflict between Japan and China. The conflict ultimately forced Japan tofire the first shot at the US, triggering a war between Japan and the United States. If weever calmly reflect on the Second Sino-Japanese War, it will be abundantly clear that
China hampered Japan--very consistent with Chinese Civilization.２
Secretary Pompeo failed to take Chinese Civilization into account and still considers theproblem in terms of communism and the Chinese Communist Party. However, heintends to eventually confront Chinese Civilization at its root, which will help to correct
blunders made by previous Presidents in dealing with China.
The United States has the Manifest Destiny as one of its principles--a historic missionof expanding human universal civilization developed from ancient Greek and RomanCivilization to the world. Secretary Pompeo unconsciously may have thought ofManifest Destiny, to fight against Chinese Civilization. The situation appears like aclash between universalist Western Civilization and stubborn Chinese Civilization. It isa clash declared by Western Civilization to abolish Chinese Civilization without any
justifiable raison d’etre.
Secretary Pompeo urged in his speech, “And if we don’t act now, ultimately the CCP
will erode our freedoms, subvert the rules-based order that our societies worked so hardto build. If we bend the knee now, our children’s children may be at the mercy of theChinese Communist Party, whose actions are the primary challenge today in the freeworld.”
Requests to the people of Taiwan
Under such an international circumstance, I have realistic and specific requests to makeas a Japanese citizen to the people of Taiwan, which is the closest to China and also
close to Japan historically, in that Taiwan used to be under Japanese rule.
Recently, amidst the peril of the novel coronavirus pandemic, when the virus first struck
Wuhan, China, without being deceived by the Chinese Government, Taiwan took
prompt measures and prevented the spread of the virus. Indeed, Taiwan has beensuccessful in tackling the virus while the rest of the world is at a loss as to what to do.
And the most marvelous thing about Taiwan is that Taiwan realized a drastic political5change, from authoritarian single party rule by the Chinese Nationalist Party, to a
multi-party democracy, where the President of the Republic of China, the head of stateof Taiwan, is directly chosen through a national election by the Taiwanese people. And
this miraculous feat was peacefully achieved.
Succeeding mainlanders Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo, nativeTaiwanese Lee Teng-hui, who lived as a Japanese under Japanese rule until he was 22
years old, successfully led the movement for direct elections of the Taiwanese President.
Taiwan held its first presidential election on March 23, 1996. Taiwan peacefullytransformed from an authoritarian state ruled by the Nationalists to a democracy basedon the people’s consent. This remarkable success has made Taiwan eligible to be aleader, together with Western Civilization nations, in the battle against Chinese
Civilization.
Regarding this battle to change authoritarian China to a democracy, high expectations
are extended to Taiwan, an eligible fighter in this cause, all over the world. Along withglobal expectations, I would like to specifically propose six realistic measures from aperspective of a Japanese. These six measures are interrelated, two are concerned withTaiwan, two with the international community and two with Japan.
(1) First, national security of Taiwan should be consolidated. In order to do so, Taiwan
should conclude a security pact with the United States, in which American militarybases are built on mainland Taiwan so that the security of Taiwan is complete. Thisis what the world expects and desires.
(2) Taiwan should ask countries of the world to recognize Taiwan as a “quasi-state” andthat, as such, Taiwan possess the same sovereignty as independent nations. In its
process to become a nation, there was a period when Taiwan was ruled by theChinese Nationalist Party and the “one China” thinking cannot be fully quashed atpresent from the perspective of Taiwan. Regarding this, we ask it to be clearly statedthat discussion on “one China” can wait until mainland China completely
democratizes. At present, in the middle of the coronavirus epidemic, the rest of theworld are highly indignant of China in its handling of the pandemic. The reasonable
request to recognize Taiwan as a “quasi-state” will be easily accepted in theinternational community.

6(3) It is generally thought that reforming the United Nations is extremely difficult.
Secretary Pompeo said in his recent China speech, “Maybe it’s time for a newgrouping of like-minded nations, a new alliance of democracies.” In other words, anew United Nations whose membership is restricted to democracies, andprospective members leave the current United Nations, most of world’s majorcountries will move to the new United Nations, which will eventually realize “UNreform,” with ease. We want the people of Taiwan to be the initiator of thismovement.
(4) Until China changes from an authoritarian state to a democracy, we want Taiwan topersist in asking people all over the world to cut its ties with China, having nothing
to do with China, politically, economically and culturally--as if China had
disappeared from the face of the earth. However, this is not at all a show of hostility
toward the Chinese people. This aims to liberate the people of the People’s Republicof China in a true sense. We must be careful not to have the Chinese people
misunderstand our intention in disseminating this message.
(5) We have a request related in particular to Japan. At the new, reformed UnitedNations, as a symbol of human progress and as nations of the 21st century, it should
be resolved that hostile propaganda against specific nations be prohibited. For
example, anti-Japanese education in China and South Korea. Elimination of suchvile education is indispensable as nations of the 21st century.
(6) Lastly, this is also concerned with Japan. Former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui,
who just recently passed away on July 30, reportedly stated, in official capacity, thatthe Senkaku Islands are Japanese territory. If so stated, we want the Government ofTaiwan to back Japan’s assertion that the Senkaku Islands belong to Japan and toadmonish the Government of the People’s Republic of China to stop its aggression
in Japanese territorial waters. At the same time, we ask that the Japanese
Government strengthen defense around the Senkaku Islands.
I mentioned six specific measures, which I assume are realistic, indispensable andexpected worldwide in dealing with current problems.
Taiwan was once under Japanese rule and former President Lee Teng-hui, who grew up
as a Japanese until he turned 22, praised Japanese Bushido (Samurai spirit), which7certainly existed as a Japanese way of life. He constantly urged us Japanese toremember Bushido. Japanese culture remains in Taiwan even today.
With these facts in mind, as a Japanese, I cannot help but feel very proud of Taiwan,
which is now leading the world in its gallant fighting against Chinese authoritarianism.
We, and the rest of the world, must continue to support Taiwan and hope with great
expectation.

Ko Bunyu’s What is History—grasping in a macroscopic perspective the differences in histories ofJapan, China, Taiwan and Korea, written by Ko Bunyu, 2017, Jiyu-sha, clarifies the macroscopic
differences in histories of Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea.
２Why Are We to Apologize to China, Promoter of the War—the Second Sino-Japanese War wascaused by China (Jiyu-sha, 2015), written by Moteki Hiromichi, clearly states that the SecondSino-Japanese War was staged by China.
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