In the 1960s, Ronald Reagan defended America’s involvement in the Vietnam War by citing the Domino Theory – if South Vietnam falls to the communists, he reasoned, the rest of Asia was next. It was 1973 before America retreated from that war, ceding the whole of Vietnam to the communists. Millions of citizens who had lived under relative freedom in Vietnam and neighboring Cambodia were subjected to death and hard labor after we abandoned the fight. Years of turmoil followed. Only now that the iron hand of tyranny has taken complete control do the peoples of those countries have peace – at the price of freedom.
The good thing was, the Domino Theory did not play out. The rest of Asia was so repulsed by what happened in Vietnam that the communists could not get a toehold anywhere else.
But today the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ruling Red China is on the march again. It has already pushed the first domino over. A once thriving, vibrant jewel of the South China Sea, Hong Kong was an autonomous province of the United Kingdom for over a hundred years before the U.K. stupidly ceded Hong Kong to Red China in 1997. The understanding was that Hong Kong’s relationship with Red China would be “one country, two systems” for fifty years – in other words, Hong Kong could operate autonomously as a free market democracy without interference from Red China, though Red China would own it.
For some time the CCP let Hong Kong be. But no more. In the past few years the hammer has come down. Red China has made it clear that Hong Kong will operate under its command with only token democratic representation. This is why you saw literally millions of protesters fill the streets of Hong Kong over and over again in 2019. The people of Hong Kong knew what was coming and they would not abide it.
Only they did not know quite everything that was coming. Was it the hand of Providence working perversely for the CCP or contrived coincidence that in early 2020, the Wuhan Virus was unleashed on the world from Red China? Either way, the first mortality was the freedom movement in Hong Kong. Where force and persuasion had failed to stop the protesters, fear of the virus was used to shut down the street protests. The Red Chinese Gestapo got busy rounding up the leaders of the opposition movement and throwing them in jail, meanwhile setting up a puppet legislature.
R.I.P. Hong Kong.
So if you believe the Domino Theory…. Taiwan is next. Taiwan, the other China. The non-Red China. The China that was set up by the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-Shek when they retreated from the Red Chinese Army to the island of Taiwan off mainland China after World War II. Taiwan is the free and freedom loving Republic of China that is prospering and progressive, with in fact the best track record in the world for fighting the Wuhan Virus.
For decades now, as it ascended via capitalism from the extreme tyrannical grip of Mao, Red China has insisted that Taiwan is not an independent country, that it is a wayward province of mainland China. Red China has forced feckless, spineless diplomats throughout the world to treat Taiwan as if it were not an independent country. Even the U.S. does not have an embassy in Taiwan so as not to provoke the CCP. The situation is a shame on the free world.
If the Biden administration proceeds true to form re Taiwan, although they will give lip service to preserving democracy there, you will see a lot of shucking and jiving as it gradually backs off our commitment to defend Taiwan against military aggression from Red China. This must not be allowed to happen. Taiwan’s democracy must be defended. Even discounting the importance of democracy, if the Taiwan Strait ends up under Red China’s control, Japan is subject to their whims for getting their goods to market.
We must see Taiwan as the sovereign nation it is, and defend it, no ifs, ands, or buts. And we must work to free Hong Kong from Red China’s grip by promoting its aspirations to independent statehood as well. Otherwise, there is no doubt we will see Ronald Reagan’s prophecy about the Domino Theory finally come to pass.
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