NPR / KQED: Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse

By John | Friday, November 4, 2011 | 11 Comments

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why taiwan matters NPR / KQED: Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse As a Taiwanese American, I’m always interested in reading, hearing or watching in the American media discussions about Taiwan. So it was with great pleasure a few days ago that my local National Public Radio affiliate, San Francisco’s KQED, dedicated a whole hour show in its daily morning local program Forum on Taiwan. The segment an interview with Shelley Rigger, author and professor of East Asian politics at Davidson College and her new book, Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse.

(If you don’t want to stream the show, you can download the MP3 here.)

For the most part, all but one of the callers were very supportive of Taiwan (including of course, a few Taiwanese Americans). As you can guess, the one caller, who was originally from China, took offense that Rigger called Taiwan a country. But Rigger took essentially the argument that Taiwan has its own free elections, own government, currency, distinct language (and I would argue also, original Chinese Traditional character set), etc. I thought Rigger did an excellent job of describing Taiwan’s societal, political, and economic situation for a general American audience who may not have known much about Taiwan.

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Author

I think the key here is, what defines a country.
Danny_Ahmed

我愛台妹
A_Lee

Great interview. Very similar to what I wrote in June here:

http://www.8asians.com/2011/06/28/house-committee-on-foreign-affairs-why-taiwan-matters/

The US really should pay more attention to the US-Taiwan-China triangle, if it wants to stay as a major player in East Asia. Taiwan plays several key roles:

1. An example of real Chinese democracy. Now that their are direct links to China, millions of mainland Chinese can have direct contact with a working democracy. If the US wants to make China pay more attention to human rights and democracy, Taiwan is a good way to get the average Chinese citizen more aware of what is possible.

2. A canary in the coal mine. Most East Asian nations look at the rise of China with a mixture of awe and fear. Chinese aggression to Taiwan, and the US reaction to it, is closely observed by other countries, such as Vietnam, Japan, or South Korea. If the US doesn’t seem to be supporting the Taiwan Relations Act, these nations will draw their own conclusions about what US promises are worth and start cutting their own deals with China.

3. A de facto US ally. While the US has not used Taiwan as a strategic ally in over three decades, Taiwan would certainly be a great staging ground in any future Asian conflicts, since all of Taiwan’s military and civilian infrastructure is already compatible with US systems.
http://www.8Asians.com/ jozjozjoz

@Danny_Ahmed This is what I thought of when you said that. I hate you right now.

http://youtu.be/P_Wcdecm1T0
mwei

@A_Lee 1. I look forward to the PRC “democratizing” like Taiwan’s political system simply for the fact the fights would be awesome.

this is currently the political situation in a one party system:

http://online.wsj.com/media/sleeping_congressman_art_200v_20090305064516.jpg

http://blog.sleepingsimple.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/china_parliament_congress_sleep_meeting.jpg
Danny_Ahmed

@jozjozjoz haha, I couldn’t help it.
Danny_Ahmed

@A_Lee I probably would add two more things. I don’t know if the US cares, but I do.

1. They have very large foreign reserves. For a small place, in terms of population, resources and all, it’s quite exceptional.

2. This is sort of my personal opinion, but Taiwan’s “I.Q. wealth” is also quite large and spread out. Like a lot of the R&D projects in Asia, North America and elsewhere have Taiwanese people involved with them. A lot of these ideas floating around come from Taiwanese brains. I know it probably doesn’t compared with the ingenuity prowess of the larger countries like US, Japan or those in Europe. However, again with the the other point I made, for a small place, it’s also very exceptional.

So, in a way, those nerds and geeks in Taiwan help make it important too.
Danny_Ahmed

@mwei lol, if PRC does be “like” Taiwan, I also think it would be interesting. Assuming it doesn’t get too out of hand, the election seasons will be like festivals and concerts than rallies or ballroom dinners.
mwei

@Danny_Ahmed they already fight like crazy on the public transportation system and in public spaces, why not just make it official and profit off the pay per view?

in fact, I propose the US senate do the same thing to pay down the deficit: Nancy Pelosi vs Newt Gingrich will be one that’s going to be watched world wide – higher than Pacman’s fights I dare say!
C_smoreth

This is stupid, after a civil war, the loser shouldnt be considered a different country. Civil war in America, Ethiopia, Lebanon etc, didn’t end with the other side becoming a different nation, in the end they are all American, Ethiopian and Lebanese just like their ancestors were; so what makes Taiwan so special after the Chinese civil war?
fishcannon

@C_smoreth I’d say it is pretty different for two main reasons. The first of which is that this civil war never actually ended; they just stopped fighting. The communists never forced a surrender from the nationalists and in fact the last battle fought in the Chinese civil war was won by the nationalists on the island of Kinmen, which is why they still exist in Taiwan undoubtedly. Mainland China would have to reassert military force or use an economic embargo to force a surrender from the nationalists to be able to technically consider the war over. It is actually still the stance of the nationalists that the territories of mainland China belong to them and that one day they will regain control over them although I think the leaders of today are more realistic than that, they still have not amended this stance in any meaningful way.

The second would be that the people in Taiwan who want Taiwan to be its own country were not even a part of the Chinese Civil war. They were in Taiwan before the PRC or the ROC even existed and they hate both equally. They wanted to be their own country after the Japanese occupation but before they even had a chance to try, boats full of the Chinese nationalists showed up and said shut up and listen to us right now, we need to rest here for a minute before we can continue fighting, but then they just never continued fighting.

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