Ask This Taiwanese: Xi Jinping, China, Scared for What’s Next

Ask “This” Taiwanese is an advice column dedicated to pesky and uncomfortable questions about Taiwan or about being Taiwanese.

Send us your questions in the form here: https://forms.gle/t4ddFbfqWKoRstn2A

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Dear Ask This Taiwanese:

We knew that Chinese leader Xi Jinping would get his third term and quite possibly become dictator for life. What unsettled me was how he treated his predecessor, Hu Jintao. He was essentially dragged out of the Communist Party Congress against his will in front of the whole world. And no one stood up to help him! My question is…how should we feel about this as Taiwanese/Taiwanese Americans?

—Scared For What’s Next

Dear Scared,

We are totally with you; we should all be a little terrified by what we saw. What we witnessed was the horrors of dictatorship played out in real time, on live TV, and streamed on the internet for the world to see. While it is still unclear what the backstory is exactly, it is chilling that a living former head of state could be unceremoniously grabbed in the armpit by a staffer and forced to leave a highly choreographed public meeting for all the world to watch.

We knew Xi Jinping was on a downward spiral into consolidating more power, and the 20th Party Congress in October was little more than a choreographed show to officially seal Xi’s control over the Communist Party and the country. We even knew that former leaders such as Hu Jintao and their factions would be essentially pushed out from the center of power. They usually fade into the background to the point we forget they were ever important. This type of “retirement” for Chinese Communist Party leadership after two five-year terms had been put in as a safeguard to avoid another Mao Zedong, whose reign of terror could only end with his life.

Yet no one quite expected how openly Xi would demonstrate his total takeover. Nothing happens at such a public event without Xi’s tacit approval, so we know Xi wanted this to happen. The effect of this spectacle was nothing other than to show everyone that he could do as he pleases, even with his direct predecessor and one-time ally. The last Chinese Communist leader who demonstrated an open purge was Mao. At last, we are witnessing the return of the second Mao Zedong of the Chinese Communist Party.

Even more disturbing was how everyone in the room reacted—or how no one reacted. There was fear on everyone’s faces as they avoided eye contact with Hu as if a wrong muscle twitch would cost them their careers, or worse. Then again, these party members of the Chinese Communist Party probably know their own history well. The last time when there was such an open display of power struggle for the Chinese Communist Party, the world witnessed the chaos of the Cultural Revolution and the brutal crackdown of the Tiananmen Massacre.

This should remind us of how, in history, dictators come to power everywhere. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Zedong, just to name a few. We even have our own experience under Chiang Kai-shek’s White Terror and nearly four decades of martial law in Taiwan. To quote Game of Thrones, “winter is coming” for the democratic way of life as now the world faces Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.

At Ask This Taiwanese, we believe that it’s the responsibility of Taiwanese and Taiwanese Americans to talk about this moment as much as we can, with as many people as we can. We believe this should not be an isolated incident that only China academics and Washington DC policy wonks care about, but it’s a harbinger of how China and the world are changing.

In the last three decades, there was much talk about letting China enter the international system with the hope it becomes a “responsible stakeholder” and, perhaps, eventually become a democracy. This is living proof of why that path is all but dead.

We as Taiwanese and Taiwanese Americans are uniquely positioned to talk about China because first and foremost Taiwan will bear the brunt of China’s actions, often before the rest of the world does. We also should understand best how China tries to influence the outside world because Taiwan has had to deal with China’s open hostility directly. Case and point, we were the first ones to warn the World Health Organization that China was not being truthful about the claim of no human-to-human transmission of Covid 19.

As Taiwanese and Taiwanese Americans, we also should be more active in preparing for an even more mercurial China. Yes, that does mean preparing for war, because it is now just harder to predict how China will act. Looking at Putin’s example of how he rules as someone with complete control and his decision to invade Ukraine, dictators can make dangerous and reckless decisions when they are surrounded by “yes men”.

It also means preparing for a more turbulent policy environment in China, whether that means economic impact for Taiwan and the rest of the world, or how China’s policies on climate will affect everyone else. We are informed by examples like Putin on how absolute power can be obsessed with holding on to power at all costs.

Above all, however, we think this is an opportunity for Taiwanese and Taiwanese Americans to have more confidence in ourselves. As China walks further down the path of authoritarianism and against universal human values, the more Taiwan stands as a stark contrast. As we have mentioned in this column, what makes us Taiwanese, above all, is our commitment to freedom, democracy, and human rights—next to the biggest, strongest dictatorship in the world. This is what we are most proud of as Taiwanese and Taiwanese Americans. The more the world pays attention to China’s turn for the worse, the more Taiwan becomes the solution. It may be a little cliche to note that only in the dark can we see the stars, but we argue that this is precisely the moment for us to shine!

It’s hard to deny that we are headed into uncertain times, and that’s definitely scary. But we don’t have to lose sight of ourselves. We really do believe that Taiwan holds the key to the world coming out from this period of uncertainty, and we at Ask This Taiwanese will choose to put our faith in that.

Strength with faith,

Ask This Taiwanese