The spunky little democracy is in a constant struggle to stave off communist aggression.
The spunky little democracy is in a constant struggle to stave off communist aggression. A wolf and a cat are born on the same day. The wolf pup is much bigger, maybe a pound at birth. The kitten, closer to four ounces. But they roll and tumble, playmates if not friends. Time passes. Both grow. The wolf becomes 150 pounds. The cat,10. The wolf is sharp-eyed, fierce and hungry, looking for its next meal. The cat is anxious, constantly trying to keep from ending up in the in the wolf’s belly. Welcome to the China-Taiwan relationship, circa 2021. Both nations were founded at the same time, in the late 1940s. Taiwan was never part of Communist China. But China insists Taiwan is its possession anyway and wants it, eventually. Communist China is much, much bigger: 1.3 billion people over 3.705 million square miles. Taiwan has 37 million people on almost 14,000 square miles, or about 1/2 of 1 percent of China. Which leads to the question of why China is so keen to snap it up, even though doing so would plunge the global economy into chaos? And the answer is: because they’re China, growing in power and aggression, keen to claim everything it thinks is its due, Hong Kong was returned from Britain and is being brutally suppressed. Next on the agenda is Taiwan, which it describes as a “renegade province.” Trouble is brewing. On Friday, the Chinese sent 38 warplanes into Taiwanese airspace. The whole flap over the United States selling submarines to Australia is about keeping China from gobbling up its neighbors. Trying to keep a distracted world aware, if not exactly focused, on their delicate situation is a continuing task for Taiwan.
