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At Biden-Xi summit, the voices of Taiwan

The summit’s reach for stability between the U.S. and China relies on respect for Taiwan’s embrace of democracy and independence.

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Reuters
People in Taipei, Taiwan, walk pass a poster of Terry Gou, the founder of major Apple supplier Foxconn, who has qualified to run in the Jan.13 presidential election.
  • By the Monitor's Editorial Board

The voters of Taiwan were not at the table today when U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met. Their summit was designed to lessen tensions between the two largest military powers in East Asia – especially over the flashpoint of Taiwan. Yet the voices of people from the self-ruled nation were clearly present with a message of peaceful stability against Mr. Xi’s threat of taking the island by force.

Just before the summit, a poll of Taiwanese people showed 83.7% agree that the future of the country should be decided by its citizens. An even higher percentage prefer the status quo in relations with China, or the de facto independence enjoyed by the island’s 23 million people.

“In the midst of tremendous internal and external pressures, Taiwan’s democracy has grown and thrived ... and we have emerged with even greater resilience,” Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said last month.

On Jan. 13, 2024, Taiwan will hold its eighth presidential election since its first one in 1996. While Ms. Tsai cannot run again, the candidate of her ruling Democratic Progressive Party is ahead in the polls – another message to Mr. Xi that voters prefer freedom over the mainland’s authoritarian rule.

In addition, nearly two-thirds of people on Taiwan see themselves as Taiwanese, not Chinese, according to the latest poll. Three decades ago, less than one-fifth saw themselves as Taiwanese.

The island’s drift away from China, which started in 1949 when anti-communist forces fled to Taiwan to escape the Communist Party takeover, really began when the Taiwanese showed through elections that a Confucian culture can be compatible with the universal principles of democracy. In contrast, China’s point person on relations with Taiwan, Wang Huning, claims all Chinese people are prone to authoritarian rule and that democratic freedoms are “self-defeating.”

For now, Mr. Xi appears to prefer using the tactics of peaceful persuasion to unify China and Taiwan. Officials in Taipei claim Beijing is even trying to set up operations for polling in Taiwan to influence opinion.

As Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi try to calm tensions, nothing speaks louder for peace than Taiwan’s choice of democratic principles over arbitrary personal power.

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