We Must Support a Pro-Taiwan Government in Taiwan
By: Brock Freeman
Tags: Human Rights, Foreign Policy, Taiwan, China, Democracy

Transcript

[00:00] Tonight we were fortunate to have the Minister of Culture from Taiwan visiting us here in Seattle. It’s very appropriate and it gives me a warm feeling to see how Taiwan’s culture is finally taking its rightful place on the world stage. We see that here in America, the impacts such as film festivals. In fact here in Seattle having this year our second successful film festival led by the Taiwanese American Professionals Association. I’m super happy to see this kind of thing, especially after myself having lived in Taiwan and enjoyed this culture personally for so many years.

[00:40] One of the most important things we want to recognize both here in America, and in Taiwan, is that we are a culture made up of multiple cultures, a melting pot culture. In fact, one of the things that I use when I talk to other Americans is this fact that we’re both melting pot cultures; Taiwan being an Asian melting pot culture. Starting with the indigenous Austronesian people who have inhabited Taiwan for thousands of years gives it a rich and deep foundation. And on top of that we have Dutch, Spanish, and many European cultures that came in to Taiwan. Then along with Hakka, Japanese, Han, Hoklo, who came and added to that rich tapestry that we now have as a multicultural melting pot culture in Taiwan. Of course now we have Southeast Asian as well.

[01:36] And I can’t help but notice also, American culture. Yes, hundreds of thousands of students who have come to the United States here to study and then brought something of American culture back to Taiwan. Truly it’s something that we can enjoy and share together both Taiwanese and American.

[01:56] Now the important thing about that, and the unique thing about that, is instead of building a culture on a narrow ethnic view of things, we really are building a culture based on shared values, both here and in America. Our shared values our freedom, democracy, human rights. But these values are now under intense attack by the Chinese Communist Party. They’re using economic terrorism, media terrorism, and many other tools to repress these and try to shape both Asia and America, and much of the world, in their evil way of thinking. As Secretary of State Pompeo just this last Wednesday at the Hudson Institute so aptly pointed out, that the CCP is truly hostile to the United States and our values, an enemy of every democracy. He called on us, saying we collectively, all of us, must confront these challenges from the People’s Republic of China head on. He also lamented how over the years we’ve downgraded our relationship with Taiwan, our longtime friend Taiwan. That must be rectified. In fact Taiwan matters very much, and this election coming up in January matters very much.

[03:26] If a pro-China administration were to take hold of Taiwan, it would mean Taiwan has effective one-country two-systems. I say ‘effective’ because there is no peace treaty needed to be signed. All that needs to happen is for this pro-China President or Head of Taiwan to simply continue the policies of the Ma Ying-jeou Administration. The Services Agreement and other ways would give CCP backed companies full control of Taiwan’s banking and services, effectively controlling all of Taiwan. That is not what we want to see.

[04:05] A worse follow-on to that would be to see in America at the end of 2020, our own pro-China candidate that China wants so badly to see. Yes, unfortunately we are facing that here. The danger of that here the United States as well, with one of our candidates openly saying that China is their friend. That the CCP, the leaders there, the ones who are putting people in concentration camps in Xinjian, that are causing such human rights repression, that are causing the problems in Hong Kong. He calls them friends? Maybe because it’s his son that’s making huge loads of money, involved with firms such as Hikvision, who is directly involved with what’s happening there in Xinjiang or East Turkestan. If that were to happen, it would be an economic, military, strategic, and diplomatic disaster.

[05:04] First, military. If we are soft on Taiwan’s defense you know what happens? Beijing simply turns their eyes on Japan or the Philippines. They claim the Senkakus all the way to Okinawa. What would stop them then from attacking? What would stop them from attacking islands that they covet that belong to the Philippines? But here’s the difference. That would actually draw us into a war because we have security guarantees with both Japan and the Philippines so being soft on Taiwan’s defense almost guarantees that we will get into a war with China that we don’t want.

[05:50] Second, strategic. Economically, twenty-thousand Washington state jobs rely on exports to Taiwan. In fact Taiwan is the seventh largest agricultural export market. Fourth if you just consider high value produce such as cherries and organic produce. In Taiwan we have A.I. research, artificial intelligence research centers that have been set up by Amazon and Microsoft. These will be taken and controlled by China. As Clay Lin researched recently, over 70 percent of the semiconductors, those chips that are important for every device that we rely on now, are produced in Taiwan. If China were to get their hands on those factories and be able to not only control the flow of chips to us, but in fact put in spyware and mess with the viability of those chips, it would put us in a very weak position.

[06:48] Third, diplomatic. With less pressure and not having to deal with the Taiwan question anymore for those in the CCP, they would turn their attention to the peripheral countries that they have territorial disputes with, India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Mongolia, every single one of them. And then outside from that we have the South China Sea. And outside from that all of Asia who they want to make into suzerain states that bowed down to China’s every whim and wish. It would weaken the United States, weaken democracy.

[07:22] We don’t want a pro-China candidate in Taiwan. We don’t want a pro-China candidate here. In fact we shouldn’t even say pro-China. We should say pro-CCP, because to be pro-China really means you are for the CCP. If you were really for China you would want to see that regime taken away. But let’s talk about what that means as a pro-CCP candidate. That means you support all the things they support, that you’re against all these things we value.

[07:50] You are anti-fairness, anti-democracy, anti-human rights, anti rule of law, anti-liberty, anti-freedom of speech, and anti-religion. In fact,that sounds very anti-American, and I would dare say very anti-Taiwanese.

[08:07] What we need instead is a pro-Taiwan, pro-fairness, pro-democracy, pro-human rights, pro-rule of law, pro-liberty, pro-freedom of speech, pro-freedom of religion party to remain in power in Taiwan.

[08:24] Let’s work together to ensure there will be no China’s Taiwan Province Governor Han in the future.