The world today has lines drawn and protected—boundaries defined even for thoughts and dissent, forget those for countries and continents. Gone are the days when lines were drawn on sand and could be wiped off by a favourable wind.
This has helped humanity concentrate and work on within its boundaries and peripheries. The race is there for humanity to thrive and for humans to have a better life. Let’s not forget with every ten years the life expectancy is increasing by four years. This implies that there is something that we have done rightly, which is basically improvement, or rather all-round development for all-round betterment.
As I always say and believe, it’s never the individual but the ideology that is dangerous. Look at what Karl Max, a German, created. It found strong roots and political patronage thousands of miles away from his home. Can anybody say this ideology is not a major concern to global security today? This ideology gives an unchallenged and persistent power to a microscopic minority and they are destined to rule all the way. It leaves no scope for dissent, does not appreciate boundaries and believes that there is no periphery for it and the world is its playground, rather its laboratory. The worrying part is that it does not even spare its own kind. This may sound like a motherhood statement and some may even discard it as one’s perception, or even call it mere rhetoric. Human vision has practical limitations, which is eyesight, but the human mind is immensely blessed as it has no limitations.
Let’s focus our minds on Taiwan to understand this more and why it must concern us all. Taiwan today is where the ROC finally settled down after they were overthrown by the violent CCP from mainland China and ran out to an island 110 km in width away from the PRC. The majority of people in Taiwan are of Han descent, hence the same as PRC or mainland China.
Taiwan started with the one-party system and soon graduated to democracy with a multi-party system, whereas the Mainland has one party and one king. Taiwan has been an independent country for the last 70 years, a progressive democracy with free and fair elections. As a small island nation, it did very well for itself, especially economically. In today’s world it has made it name for semiconductors and a host of other equipment manufacturing, most recently for IoT CPE (customer premises equipment). PRC does tons of business with Taiwan, to the tune of $180 billion, and Taiwan has a surplus of more than $100 billion. Taiwan continues to be the biggest investor in PRC (no, it’s not the US) as Taiwan needs land and labour which the PRC provides readily. Hence, business is good, money is being made, people belong to the same ethnicity and a lot of marriages happen between them and the Mainlanders. Moreover, they have democracy, free elections and enormous business, and are, I would say, a global economic tech contributor as well.
But the problem is with ideology, which gives some people all the power in the world and then they need to prove their worst. General Secretary Xi Jinping believes lines are drawn in sand and he can brew a storm to push the wind in the direction which suits him and blur them. Xi on record talks of peaceful reunification, or else there is military action. Factually speaking, he does not have options; if he ever had viable options, he would have used them. Military action means crossing 110 km by ship and marine means, which are slow, and then moving through the heavily fortified Taiwan beaches and reinforcement, which is next to impossible. Let’s remind ourselves here that the Taiwan Strait is regularly protected by US aircraft carriers. Taiwan has 1,80,000 in the army and 1.5 million fully trained reserves which is significant for a country its size. State-of-the-art missile shields, SAM systems, a very powerful air force with 400 fighters, and ultramodern equipment, arsenals and support systems are also a part of its military brigade. Although aerial assault is not an option as anybody who will be killed is Han Chinese with relatives and blood bounds across the Mainland. It is worth it to mention that not even 10 percent of the Mainlanders want any confrontation with Taiwan.
Moreover, it is a lesser-known fact that Taiwan is also a strategic element for world peace because it is defined as the last island chain. If at all Taiwan falls, the Chinese navy would have access to the Pacific Ocean and the US military assets present in the biggest naval bases in the Philippines would come under threat, along with the assets of Japan and North Korea and so on.
The fall of Taiwan will be like the breach of Troy, and it can be the biggest stumbling block for global democracies and peace-loving countries, for world peace overall. A Himalayan win for China has the same ramification and an unchecked South China Sea is a threat to peace too. So, humanity should not let a human following an ideology believe that lines are drawn in sand as that will only start a storm, not end it.
The world has to rally behind Taiwan and support the US Initiative of TIPA (Taiwan Invasion Protection Act) and dismantle the ‘One China’ policy of the PRC which is basically a global licence for an everlasting land grab.
IoT-based technologies will control 25 percent of the global GDP in the next 20 years. With China out of the AI game because of India’s app ban and Chinese 5G out of window, if Taiwan’s interests are protected and provided with an alternative to manufacture outside China, it can end China’s position among the top three global technologies and be a knockout punch to the already fragile Chinese economy.