My Take | The reincarnations of Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek
- In the fateful triangle of Taipei, Beijing and Washington, Xi Jinping and Tsai Ing-wen have both been channelling old ghosts, one self-consciously and publicly, the other stealthily
The formation of a US-led, Nato-like alliance; calls for a formal defence pact between the United States and the island of Taiwan; a retaliatory mainland Chinese military display that worsened a crisis in the Taiwan Strait; heightening tensions between Washington and Beijing threatening a war …
Sorry, I am actually thinking about the 1950s. But if it sounds a lot like today, well, that’s because it is. Almost half a century of fruitful relations and dialogues between Beijing and Washington – on which the prosperity of China and peace of the world had depended – have almost been buried and forgotten. As Hegel famously wrote: “The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” Apparently, that applies even if many of us have lived through it.
While Xi Jinping is self-consciously channelling the ghost of Mao Zedong, Tsai Ing-wen is doing the same, albeit stealthily in the spirit of Chiang Kai-shek. Domestically, Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party have, of course, been carrying out their own version of “de-Stalinisation” against Chiang’s legacies as they try to delegitimise and discredit their main rival, the Kuomintang; not to mention their not-too-subtle subversion of Chiang’s one-China mission as stated in the island’s constitution.
But when it comes to the fateful triangle of mainland China, the island of Taiwan and the US, she has been replicating Chiang’s moves from the 1950s by deliberately provoking Beijing and drawing Washington to commit formally to the island’s defence, including US troop deployment in the event of an armed conflict, no matter who started it.
Back to the past
In late June, in an unprecedented and highly provocative move, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand took part in a Nato summit. The summit itself came up with a new doctrine, which identified China as a threat to Nato’s “interests, security and values”, including Beijing’s close relations with Russia and its growing influence in Africa.