March 26, 2005
People Power in Taiwan
Hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese gathered today for a massive protest against the passage of anti-secessionist legislation by China. As many as a million people were expected to fill the streets of Taipei to demonstrate for peace and democracy. This post at Publius Pundit has lots of links and pictures.
A Washington Post op-ed by Taiwanese premier Frank Chang-ting Hsieh yesterday included these words:
Taiwan agrees with the democratic vision of President Bush: Security will ultimately be guaranteed only through the advance of liberty. And certainly, over the past two decades, we have seen remarkable progress in democracy in East Asia. In fact, it's no surprise that the most serious security problems we face in East Asia come from the policies being adopted by the region's two remaining one-party dictatorships: China and North Korea.For all the efforts to "engage" China and help it become a "responsible" power, the reality is that it continues to stifle the democratic aspirations of its own people and to threaten Taiwan's democracy with military force. Unless the great democracies of the world say this behavior is not tolerable, we will only be inviting Beijing to believe it is.
Here's Time Magazine's take on current U.S. - China relations.
Posted by dan at March 26, 2005 07:44 PM