Finally Making Front Headlines: Imperialist Beijing Promises to Conquer Taiwan; Does CNN Support the PRC?

Story dated 07 March 2005

It's weird finally seeing this issue on or near the front page. Michael Savage is even talking about it, it seems. I, on the other hand, have been talking about this issue for months. Not that I think people are stealing my material. Quite the contrary, I don't understand why it's taken so long for this issue to gain any momentum. For those of you who have not been reading my web log, let me summarize the situation in its historical context. In the middle of the last century, the Chinese Communist insurgents defeated the army of the Republic of China (which had been in power since the early 1900s). The government of the Republic of China (ROC) escaped to Taiwan along with millions of ROC refugees. Taiwan, formerly a Japanese possession had been surrendered to the ROC at the end of WWII. After the Communists took over the mainland, the ROC set up a government in exile in Taiwan, which they continued to administer as a province of the Republic of China. The Communist government, styled the People's Republic of China (the PRC), never took Taiwan. They have never, from that time to now, had political or military control of Taiwan. The government of Taiwan predates the PRC by almost half a century. Yet, somehow, the PRC thinks that Taiwan is the property of Beijing. So now, the tyrants of Beijing have crafted an 'anti-secession' law. The law would make it illegal for any territory claimed by the PRC to declare independence. This includes Taiwan, and the Senkakus (some Japanese islands). The law authorizes the PRC to use military force to enforce their claims. In conjunction with this law, the PRC has been promising for months to crush Taiwan with their military. And no one cares. It's almost as if the rest of the world buys the fact that Taiwan is not a sovereign republic and instead is actually a rogue province of the PRC.

Despite my appreciation that this story is finally getting some notice, the actual coverage is basically revisionist history in action. The CNN article that this post links to does not mention the historical context of the PRC's claims on Taiwan (like I did at the beginning). All they say is that "China has considered Taiwan a renegade province since communist forces drove nationalists from the mainland in 1949, and has repeatedly threatened to use military power against the island if it declares independence." CNN basically omits the very important fact that the PRC has never, ever actually had political control of the island. I might be overreacting, but this seems like tacit support by CNN of the PRC against the sovereign republic of Taiwan.

posted by The Sovereign Editor | 4:36 PM

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