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My friend Jo sent me the following message and asked me what I thought about it.
Here is my answer:
Today's China is different from what it was in the 1930s and 40s. The mindset of Cold War in Eisenhower's days should no longer govern the world in the 21st century. I hope the US will play a more positive role in promoting peaceful negotiations across the Taiwan Strait, at least not provoking confrontations or continuing to use Taiwan as an instrument or a pawn in the "1st-island chain" in the Pacific for the US interest in East Asia.
Senator Dan Sullivan exaggerated the threat and influence of China. He mentioned his visit to Taiwan in 2021 to provide vaccines because China prevented Taiwan from getting Western vaccines. It is totally untrue. The reality is that the DPP government not only delayed in buying Vaccines like Pfizer, Moderna and Az, but also prohibited local enterprises and religious groups from donating them to the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The alleged purpose was to preserve the market for a local product Medigen, which, unfortunately, was never approved by WHO. Neverthless, its price soared in the stock market from NT$30 per share in January 2020 to NT$389 in May 2021.
We were not only short of vaccines, the government also put the production and distribution of masks under state control in 2020, but gave them as free gifts to foreign countries including the US. The people in Taiwan had to wait in long lines outside drug stores in rain or under the scorching sun to buy our own quotas. A friend of mine got up at 4:00 am so that he could buy the masks his daughter needed to go to work. To return the favor, countries like Japan, Lithuania, Slovakia, Checkslovakia and Poland, in addition to the US, also donated vaccines to Taiwan afterwards. But China's donation offer was not accepted by the DPP government.
Nowadays the US actually poses more threat to Taiwan than any other countries. The forced move of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. ,together with its engineers, to Arizona is an international act of robbery and tyranny. The forced selling and delayed delivery of US military weapons at prices much higher than what other countries had to pay has also been a long-term economic burden on Taiwan. I hope the people in Taiwan could be wise and lucky enough not to be turned into the second "heroic" Ukrain as Sullivan expected.
Taiwan is not Ukrain. Any country wants to be the next Ukrain?
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