By Daniel Nardini
Legislators for the New Power Party, a minor political party in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan (Parliament), have called on the government of the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan to allow the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan on the sixtieth anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese Communist rule. This uprising, which happened between March 10-23, was a revolt against the abuses and crimes committed against the Tibetan people by the Chinese armed forces then occupying Tibet. Before 1950, Tibet had been an independent country with its own government. However, the Chinese Communists marched into Tibet and took it over. Since that time the Chinese government has destroyed much of Tibet’s culture, religious heritage, and killed an estimated 1.5 million Tibetans. To this day, the Chinese occupying authorities have tried to destroy what is left of Tibet’s culture and language. The Dalai Lama, who was Tibet’s young ruler at the time, was the head of the resistance against China’s rule in Tibet and still is.
Taiwan, not being under the rule of the People’s Republic of China (Communist China), has had the Dalai Lama visit Taiwan several times—the last time being in 2009 on the fiftieth anniversary of the Tibetan uprising. Will Taiwan grant the Dalai Lama a visa to visit Taiwan this time? That remains to be seen. One thing that is not in dispute is that no matter how much China may protest this, Taiwan has the right and the power to make its own decisions. This is what frustrates China most. They want to control and rule Taiwan just like it does with Tibet, but so far it cannot. It has threatened Taiwan with force, but such a move would probably bring in the United States and Japan into a conflict that could spark World War III. Tibet, on the other hand, is firmly under Chinese control and there is nothing that the world can do about it. The Chinese government is settling tens of thousands of ethnic Chinese in Tibet to make sure that Tibet never becomes a separate country again. Why is this important to us here in the United States? Because the Chinese government is building a powerful armed force that can launch thousands of submarines and thousands of battleships against us. If it can project naval power against Taiwan it can project naval power against the U.S. territory of Guam and even against Hawaii. The Tibetans discovered too late what Chinese Communist aggression means, and this is something we should as a people also bear in mind.
One the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising
By Daniel Nardini
Taiwan, not being under the rule of the People’s Republic of China (Communist China), has had the Dalai Lama visit Taiwan several times—the last time being in 2009 on the fiftieth anniversary of the Tibetan uprising. Will Taiwan grant the Dalai Lama a visa to visit Taiwan this time? That remains to be seen. One thing that is not in dispute is that no matter how much China may protest this, Taiwan has the right and the power to make its own decisions. This is what frustrates China most. They want to control and rule Taiwan just like it does with Tibet, but so far it cannot. It has threatened Taiwan with force, but such a move would probably bring in the United States and Japan into a conflict that could spark World War III. Tibet, on the other hand, is firmly under Chinese control and there is nothing that the world can do about it. The Chinese government is settling tens of thousands of ethnic Chinese in Tibet to make sure that Tibet never becomes a separate country again. Why is this important to us here in the United States? Because the Chinese government is building a powerful armed force that can launch thousands of submarines and thousands of battleships against us. If it can project naval power against Taiwan it can project naval power against the U.S. territory of Guam and even against Hawaii. The Tibetans discovered too late what Chinese Communist aggression means, and this is something we should as a people also bear in mind.