In December 2016, Donald Trump, then our nation’s president-elect, took a congratulatory phone call from Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan.
Their reportedly cordial chat, initiated by one democratically elected leader to another, incoming one, lasted about 10 minutes.
Seems like a formality that should have been little noticed or remarked upon, doesn’t it?
If only.
At the time, critics acted as though our nation’s president-to-be had done the unthinkable. And the leadership of the People’s Republic of China responded similarly.
It seemed to bode well for the incoming administration, demonstrating that it wouldn’t be pushed around by China and would not be needlessly constrained by the diplomatic niceties that had for so long dictated our nation’s dealings with Taiwan, which Beijing has officially viewed as a breakaway province for nearly three-quarters of a century. The message: We’ll deal with Taiwan as we see fit, not as dictated by the Chinese Communist Party.
That was a message worth sending.
Now, with Joe Biden having succeeded Trump in the White House, the U.S. has sent a delegation, consisting of a former senator and two former top State Department officials, to Taipei. This, too, is worth cheering.
Though Biden’s predecessor was so often so wrong about so much, it can be easy to forget that there actually were occasions when Trump was right on the money. He most assuredly made some good moves in the Middle East. And when it came to our dealings with China and Taiwan.
China’s president, Xi Jinping, believes fundamentally that his nation, where a single party, with the guy at the top making all the decisions, is on the rise even as America, where the people are ultimately in charge, is declining.
The question, at the end of the day, is about two completely opposite systems of governing: one repressive in the extreme, the other always striving to be as open as it can be. Xi is betting that the temporary successes of his totalitarianism will seem somehow bright and shiny when compared with the difficulties that are sometimes manifest and apparent in our democratic republic.
It would have been easy -- and completely incorrect -- for the Biden administration to decide to take the opposite position from the one taken by Trump -- no matter what the issue at hand. On Taiwan, Biden wisely chose another course.
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Biden correct to send diplomatic delegation to Taiwan (Editorial) - masslive.com
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