Thinning the Herd Beijing Style: So Why Does Ma Keep Pushing Taiwan Towards Unification?

Tuesday May 18, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

In the past few years, the international media has been filled with plenty of stories of how the Middle Kingdom of Pollution, Poison and Propaganda has sent out deadly products such as poisoned toothpaste, poisoned pet foods, poisoned toys rife with lead-based paint etc. etc. The world has been shocked, but not enough to give up the quest of the almighty dollar; thus it has chosen to ignore the facts on how Beijing thins the herd of humans around the world. Instead it has continued the mantra, "Buy China! Make a Profit." A bitter mantra and a bitter pill, especially if one thinks of all the collateral damage this causes.

Recently, however, a China Center for Disease Control and Prevention study has shown what many already knew or suspected that China thins the herd not only without its borders but also within them. The study announced that in China indoor pollution levels can be "five to ten times higher" than those in the polluted air without. As a result some 2.2 million youth under five years of age are killed annually in China from this. Now 2.2 million youth killed annually may not seem a large sum if you think that China has some 1.3 billion people, but with a national law of one child per family, that means roughly 2.2 million families are denied their next generation.

One can wonder whether many of the people in China actually know these statistics; they probably don't since the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) keeps a tight lid on all media. And even if the study results do come up, there are probably enough Chinese who would say that the families of these others should be happy to sacrifice their youth for the good of the country. Let us leave that problem for the Chinese to deal with themselves. They don't seem to want social unrest. This recent study follows a 2007 World Bank report that stated that a mere 750,000 Chinese die prematurely due to air and water pollution. The CCP went to great lengths to edit that death toll out, because it was feared that it would cause "social unrest." Ah yes, social unrest, it is better to have millions die that let the glimmer of social unrest be seen in the land.

But, what has this to do with Taiwan? Well, for the rest of the world, the great run to China has begun to slow down, but not so for Taiwan. Ironically, in Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou has been singing an ECFA Lorelei song for China more and more as the mid-way point of his two years in office approaches with little to show. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Ma is hard-pressed to come up with any progress, so, Ma must keep chanting that Taiwan's only hope (or the only hope he is capable of delivering) is to join the Middle Kingdom of Pollution, Poison, and Propaganda. Does Taiwan really want a leader like this? Is it time to dump Ma before it gets too late? The coming November elections would be a good first start.