OPINION:
On New Year’s Day 1979, then-President Jimmy Carter severed formal U.S. ties with Taiwan and recognized the unelected Communist Party regime in Beijing as “the sole legal government of China.”
The following year, Ronald Reagan would defeat Mr. Carter in the election, ending his presidency and ushering in a new approach to American foreign policy that culminated in the implosion of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.
Yet more than four decades later, Mr. Carter’s foolish “One China” policy remains in place. It is little more than a decaying relic.
Many things have changed in the years since. But one hasn’t:P residents of both political parties have continued to dutifully repeat the State Department’s robotic mantra that there is “One China and Taiwan is part of China.” It’s a dogma that is as dangerous as it is dishonest.
For starters, Taiwan has never been under the control of mainland China or part of its territory — not even for a single day. Taiwan elects its own leaders, administers its own territory, conducts its own diplomatic and trade relations, sets its own immigration rules, and maintains its own armed forces. All of these are the indisputable hallmarks of a sovereign state.
China’s bombastic claim that “Taiwan has always been an inalienable part of China” also collapses under even the most basic scrutiny. Taiwan has been separately governed since before the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949 — and for the half century preceding the end of World War II, it was actually part of Japan.
In many ways, the “One China” farce is reminiscent of the timeless Hans Christian Andersen tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” In that story, two charlatans posing as tailors charge a king exorbitant sums to weave him a fine suit using what they refer to as the “fabric of dreams.” This “fabric,” they claim, can only be seen by those who are competent and wise.
But of course there is no fabric, and there are no clothes. The story ends with the two swindlers pocketing untold riches and the king strolling through town in full view of his subjects “wearing” his nonexistent robe. Eventually, a boy in the crowd exposes the ruse by pointing out that the emperor is stark naked.
Like the king in Andersen’s fable, America’s decision to acknowledge the Chinese Communist Party’s bogus claims over Taiwan has led other leaders to follow suit and accept fiction as fact. Currently, only 13 countries recognize Taiwan (mostly poorer states in Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific). That’s roughly half the number that did in 1990. And like the U.S., many of those nations subsequently increased their economic exposure to China as well.
The results — much like the emperor’s birthday suit — are visible to everyone. In the West, this fealty to Beijing has led to debt traps, ballooning trade deficits, lost manufacturing jobs, a deadly fentanyl epidemic, and espionage on an industrial scale.
In China, it has fueled a menacing military buildup and baseless territorial claims, and enabled forced labor, human rights abuses and even genocide.
It’s a delusion the world can no longer afford.
The good news is that support is growing on Capitol Hill for a policy change, one that rejects the “One China” sham. In fact, 50 House lawmakers have already co-sponsored legislation calling for a reality-based framework that recognizes Taiwan for what it is: a free, democratic and independent country.
For too long, democracies around the globe have been pretending to see something that simply isn’t there. The United States should lead by example and end this tired charade.
• Tom Tiffany, a member of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, represents Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District in the House of Representatives.
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