 |
 Headline News
World |
IN THE LOWER LEFT HAND COLUMN OR VIEW THE GUEST FORUM SECTION THRU
Note: Links to other sites will open in a new window. |
SELLING THE SOUL OF AMERICA
Submitted by Charleston Voice
Message - 1/74 It's a sad day for America when those professing they advocate "free market economics" ask their readers and investors to step over the 60 million slaughtered in Red China to get a 'return' on their investment. This is not free market economics, my friend; this is immorality, intellectual dishonesty heaped upon others, and greed taking the foremost. For our leaders and corporate socialists to betray an ally is one thing, but for private Americans - who have a choice - to do likewise is inexcusable. This behavior is the ultimate betrayal of liberty and freedom for others around the world who are not as fortunate as those who would sell them out for a few pieces of silver. Christians of today can only pray for a better outcome for these modern day Judas Iscariots. Link
The Betrayal of Taiwan If democracy is good for everybody, as George Bush has said, why are we so afraid of it for China? Don Feder raises this question in his article, "Bush's New Taiwan Doctrine," FrontPageMagazine.com, Dec. 12, 2003. An excerpt follows: President George W. Bush denied his own doctrine (democracy is good for people everywhere) when he slammed the government of Taiwan for allowing its people to express themselves on a crucial matter.
In the Middle East, the president's motto is: Democracy cures all ills. Last month, Bush told the region's rulers that the key to peace and prosperity is respect for civil liberties and popular sovereignty. But when it comes to the Far East, far from being the road to salvation, apparently, democracy is a dangerous provocation--in the eyes of this president.
In the course of Tuesday's state visit by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, Bush took the unusual step of denouncing democracy in action. In answer to a question from the press, the president complained, "The comments and actions made by the leader of Taiwan indicate that he may be willing to make decisions unilaterally to change the status quo, which we oppose."
Bush couldn't even bring himself to refer to Chen Shui-bian as Taiwan's president, notwithstanding that--unlike the venerable Wen--Chen was democratically elected to the office he holds. In 1996 and again in 2000, Taiwan's president was chosen by a direct vote of the people. The media described Bush's pronouncement as an effort to forestall a declaration of Taiwanese independence.
But the "comments and actions" the president referred to have nothing whatsoever to do with "unilaterally changing the status quo" in the Taiwan Straits.
Chen has called for a national referendum, to coincide with the March 2004 presidential election, on whether the Taiwanese consider the missiles Beijing is aiming at them a threat to their peace and security. It would give the free people of Taiwan an opportunity to demand that China stop trying to bully them.
The mainland's communist rulers have targeted Taiwan with 496 ballistic missiles (all at sites within 600 kilometers of the island). That number is growing by 50 to 75 a year.
President Bush could have denounced this ballistic blackmail as a danger to the "status quo" in that part of the world. He could have called for their immediate redeployment. Instead, he ignored China's provocation and hailed the People's Republic as our "partner in diplomacy." George W. Bush, the eminent internationalist, seems to have less allegiance to democracy that he does to a status quo dominated by globally-minded elitists. China is a "key partner" to such minds, regardless of their human rights abuses or their threat to democracy. Even if we wish to abandon democracy as a value, those who care about human rights must question our unwavering support of China and betrayal of Taiwan.
In the early 1970s, the Nixon administration worked hard to get Taiwan expelled from the U.N. so that the dictatorship of China could be seated. We have continued to shun Taiwan and to grovel for the favor of Beijing. We have also remained supportive of the betrayal of free Hong Kong by Britain, allowing an entire free and prosperous nation to be turned over to dictators. Taiwan is the next target for Chinese conquest. Our talk of "unification" is most troubling. Do we not recall that Taiwan's leaders are democratically elected and do not make it a practice to oppress other nations, execute political prisoners for organ harvesting, or force abortions upon their nation's women? Taiwan's government does not have missiles aimed at us, nor do they provide aid to the Taliban while supplying drugs and weapons to American gangs. Taiwan should be one of our closest friends, yet we shun them. A news story from Aug. 15, 2000 ("US 'Reminds' Taiwan Leader about Visiting," Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, p. 4A), reported that our ultra-left State Department made public objections to a planned visit of Taiwan's President with US officials. The State Department would only allow him to make brief stops in the US and "only if his visits are totally private." Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California said "It's a pretty sad day when we have a democratically elected president in town, even if only in transit, who has been cut off from talking to elected officials here in order to prevent gangsters in a dictatorship from getting mad at us."
Here is a news item from Infobeat, WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton assured Chinese President Jiang Zemin in a telephone call Sunday the U.S. is committed to its "one China" policy despite Taiwan's moves toward independence. Clinton spoke with Jiang for a half-hour from the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland, said White House spokesman David Leavy. He said the two leaders discussed an array of U.S.-Chinese issues, and Clinton reiterated U.S. policy with regard to China and Taiwan. China has promised to crush any attempt by Taiwan to break away, after Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui stated July 9 that relations with China should be conducted on a state-to-state basis. How can we sit back and virtually encourage China to seize Taiwan?
Will Things Change with George W. Bush? No--it's business as usual. Never mind that China is a leading exported of drugs and illegal weapons that ravage the streets of the US, never mind that China has shot down a US airplane and said that war with the US is inevitable, never mind that they are strengthening their military machine (something that requires lots of trade and credit from the West), never mind that they have nuclear weapons targeted at the US, and never mind that they are an abusive empire using slave labor for the production of some of the goods they ship to the US. George W. Bush does not seem terribly bothered by the implications of strengthening the power of China's tyrants by affording them respect and wealth from US trade. Here is a recent news summary on President Bush's position, from Infobeat, June 1, 2001: BEIJING (AP) - China welcomed the U.S. administration's decision to ask Congress to extend normal trade relations for another year but called for an end to the contentious annual approval process. "Normal trade relations and a reciprocal trade serve the interests of both sides," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said Thursday. "It is a reciprocal trading relationship; it is not a favor granted by one to the other." President Bush said Wednesday that he will ask Congress this week to extend the normal trading terms, which set tariffs on Chinese products at the same low levels granted to virtually every other U.S. trading partner. Bush said healthy trade with China promotes reform, aids stability in Asia and helps the U.S. economy. The economic pressures to maintain trade with China, regardless of the threat they pose to us and the world, must be enormous, but we must not allow that pressure to sacrifice democracy in Asia. We must insist that Taiwan remain free.
|
