China’s top theoreticians have turned out in force in an attempt to use cross-strait academic exchanges to spread their propaganda and brainwash the Taiwanese public, laying the foundation for “unification.” Their efforts, however, have had little effect.
These people’s problem is that they were born under a dictatorship. Their heads are filled with dictatorial ideology and they only know how to serve their autocratic regime. Public opinion means nothing to them, nor do they understand what Taiwanese think.
That is why Zheng — China’s standard bearer on this Taiwan visit — revealed his ignorance of Taiwan’s history and mainstream public opinion as soon as he opened his mouth, along with his arrogant and high-handed manner.
Taiwan is a sovereign and independent nation, which, through its state institutions, exercises full sovereignty and government over its own territory. In Taiwan, public opinion comes first, and the mainstream public opinion identifies with Taiwan. Only a handful of people in Taiwan still favor unification.
Zheng’s claim that “the Taiwanese independence trend will inevitably go into decline” is an ignorant lie that will not fool anyone in Taiwan. Even these Chinese theoreticians, after seeing Taiwanese society up close, may now understand that identification with Taiwan is the mainstream of public opinion, and that Taiwan’s sovereignty and independence are an undeniable reality.
The implications of this are very dangerous for Taiwan.
Consider that the military balance in the strait is tilting toward China as Taiwan has let its defenses slide for the last decade, relative to China.
But China's growing ability to invade Taiwan does not mean that China will succeed if it invades nor does it mean that the cost isn't too high for them to make the fateful decision to attack.
The potential cost of winning (in casualties, cost, foreign relations, trade, etc., not to mention that the cost of losing that invasion could be dangerous to the regime itself) may be considered too high if the assumption of the top theoreticians and leaders in Peking is that there is no need to risk all those costs if Taiwan inevitably will join China.
But if repeated contact with Taiwanese people really does convince the theoreticians and leaders of China that Taiwan is unlikely to voluntarily join the mainland, the calculation of acceptable costs to conquer Taiwan changes dramatically, doesn't it?
The Taiwanese need to seriously reconsider their policy of encouraging contacts between the mainlanders and Taiwanese, which probably will lead to the mainlanders understanding that Taiwanese believe independence and sovereignty are too important to give up.
It would be far better for Taiwan's safety to keep their Chinese neighbors at a distance so that they can continue to believe that the Taiwanese will, of course, eventually want to join China.
