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Taiwan’s beacon
starts to flicker
By Nat Bellocchi 白樂崎
A few weeks ago I wrote an article about the Bo Xilai (薄熙來) dismissal in which I
argued that his case was illustrative of the endemic corruption in China and
that it would be good for Taiwan to build better firewalls between itself and
China so that it is better protected when things go wrong in Beijing (“Leading
by example is a good way to influence,” April 30, page 8).
This time I would like to focus on a very different case: that of the blind
human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠), who was able to come to the US with
his family last week, but only after protracted high-level negotiations between
the US and China. The Chen case attracted widespread international attention
because of the outrageous injustice he and his family had to suffer at the hands
of the Chinese authorities.
However, Chen was lucky: He had many supporters and the Western media were able
to highlight the case and bring it to the attention of the international public.
Many millions of people in China are less fortunate and have to suffer in
silence and obscurity. The basic problem is that China still languishes under an
authoritarian political system, in which there is no justice or freedom to speak
out.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the military, the People’s Armed Police and a
wealthy elite become more corrupt by the day, while the average citizen has very
little room for maneuver and cannot speak out against injustice at the risk of
ending up in prison or worse.
How does this connect to Taiwan? My main point is that China is becoming
increasingly corrupt and repressive, and that it would therefore be prudent to
keep a safe distance from China and work toward a future in which Taiwan is a
full and equal member of the international family of nations. The people of
Taiwan worked so hard to achieve democracy only 20 years ago and they need to
keep working hard to safeguard that democracy.
Erosion of democracy and human rights is not something that happens overnight,
but is a process in which these freedoms are slowly whittled away. If Taiwan is
to be a bulwark for democracy in East Asia, its people need to stand up and
speak up when they see injustice. This is especially important when this
injustice takes place in China: the CCP regime thinks it can gradually take over
Taiwan by undermining its democratic foundations. It needs to hear loud and
clear that the people of Taiwan will defend not only their own democracy and
human rights, but will also speak up for freedom and justice elsewhere.
This voice for freedom and justice needs to be raised in the face of Chinese
repression in Tibet and East Turkestan (Xinjiang Province) and also in regard to
what the CCP government is doing to its own people.
That is why the people of Taiwan need to strongly express themselves in support
of Chen.
In closing, I would like to paraphrase the famous quote from the German pastor
Martin Niemoller, who criticized the inaction and hesitance of the German
intelligentsia to speak out during the Nazi rise in the 1930s.
In the present circumstance, this quote might read as follows: “First they came
for the Tibetans, and I did not speak out because I was not a Tibetan. Then they
came for the Uighurs, and I did not speak out because I was not a Uighur. Then
they came for Chen Guangcheng, and I did not speak out, because I was not a
blind lawyer. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for
me.”
That is why it is essential for the Taiwanese people to speak out whenever they
see injustice, in Taiwan, in China or elsewhere.
Nat Bellocchi served as chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan from
1990 to 1995. The views expressed in this article are his own.
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