Showing that not all Indo-Asian countries support 70-year-old President Joe Biden policy in Taiwan, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed said Biden continues to provoke a war with Communist China over Taiwan. Biden said publicly May 23 that he would defend Taiwan in the event of a Communist Chinese invasion, something 69-year-old Chinese President Xi Jinping says violates the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act. Signed into law by former President Jimmy Carter, the Taiwan Relations Act superseded the 1954 Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower only five years after the Maoist Revolution. Mao’s famous purges, killing about 20 million Chinese, attempted to purge the country of “capitalists” that held China hostage for its history. Mao never told the Chinese people what would happen under a Marxist-Leninist regime.
Seventy-three years of democratic rule on the island of Formosa, Xi decided that he wants the Republic of China [ROC] to acquiesce to Mainland Communist rule. U.S. has armed Taiwan for over 70 years, operating, since 1979, under the “strategic ambiguity” that the U.S. would defend Taipei against the Chinese Communist invasion. Under terms of Carter’s 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, the U.S. agreed to end the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty and recognize only one China, the one in Beijing. So when Mahathir say that Biden is trying to provoke a war with China, he doesn’t understand why the U.S. sends House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to tell Taipei that the U.S. has its back. Taken with Biden’s remarks, Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan provoked Xi to start major military exercises in the Taiwan Strait, letting Taipei know there are consequences to Biden and Pelosi’s actions.
Former Malysian PM Mohammed said for the last 73 years no one has made a big deal about Taiwan’s independence from Mainland China. “China has allowed Taiwan to remain by itself. No problem. They didn’t invade. If they wanted to invade, they could have invaded. The didn’t. But America is provoking [them] so that there can be war, so that the Chinese will make the mistake of trying to occupy Taiwan,” said 97-year-old Mahathir. To be fair, Xi and his Foreign Ministry led by 68-year-old Wang Yi have been threatening consequences if Pelosi visited Taipei. Pelosi defied China’s wishes and visited Aug. 4, then, adding insult to injury, sending Rep. Ed Markey (D-Calif.) with another Congressional delegation. “Then there is an excuse . . . for the U.S. to help Taiwan, even fight against China and sell a lot of arms to Taiwan,” Mahathir said, raising the prospects of war.
Xi wants Biden to clarify the Taiwan Relations Act, where Carter bent-over-backwards to placate Mainland China’s demands for the U.S. to only recognize one China. In hindsight, Carter should have never agreed to erase Chinese Taipei to placate Communist China. In 1979, the U.S. government was only six years removed from President Richard Nixon and his 97-year-old former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger from opening up diplomatic relations with Beijing. American businesses clamored at the time to start manufacturing in China’s slave-labor markets, giving multinational companies the opportunity to make unprecedented profits. But Carter didn’t have the foresight to know that recognizing only one China tossed Taipei under the bus, giving Beijing the idea they could one day take over the island nation. No one in Taipei wants any part of Communist China.
Whether admitted to or not, there are big differences between democratic, free market economies, than the Communist system, based on total government social and economic control. If Biden had any rapport with Xi, which he does not, he would work with Xi on recognizing the value of an independent and free Taiwan. Xi understands the history of famous Chinese Gen.Chaing Kai-Shek of leading a band of Chinese nationalists to the island of Formosa in the 1949 Maoist Revolution. Xin understands that the ROC spent the last 73 years of developing a democratic, free market society to develop some of the most important industries in the world, especially the world’s biggest chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor. Xi may think China holds theoretical sovereignty over Taiwan but if he really looks at the history, ROC citizens want no part of Communist China.
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed asked Biden a basic question: Why push Beijing into doing something stupid, like invading Taiwan? Biden should stop antagonizing Beijing, mend fences and develop a strategy to assure China that he respects the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, recognizing only one China. When Joe said he would defend Taiwan May 23, that sent the exact wrong message to Beijing. Biden must work with Xi to help him see that China is better off without Taiwan, leaving the island nation and its 23.5 million people to stay as an independent country. Even if Beijing asks Taiwan for a special tax, it would go a long way in settling down today’s tensions only exacerbated by Biden and Pelosi. Mohammed simply wants Biden to stop war mongering in Indo-China, trying to do his utmost to promote prosperity and peace in the region, not war with China.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
