Will Barack Obama Stand Up the Same Way for Taiwan?

Thursday July 02, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

With the recent attempted coup in Honduras, Barack Obama responded immediately and spelled out the United States position under him. He said, "We stand on the side of democracy, sovereignty and self-determination." Those are strong and clear words; the only shame of it all is that the United States after some sixty years (more than a half a century) has not been able to unambiguously state the same about Taiwan.

Taiwan has 23 million people and is regularly threatened by the rapacious country to its west. 23 millioin people, that is more than four times as many as Honduras, but the unfortunate refrain often heard by countries such as the USA and others is "We stand on the side of democracy, sovereignty and self-determination... but we will hedge when it comes to Taiwan because there is money to be made in the Middle Kingdom of Pollution, Poison, and Propaganda." Such is the Way of the World as Congreve put it.