Reason Number 19 - Hegemony with Chinese Characteristics

‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 37
In China, the ‘kowtow’ has long been the traditional form of obeisance on meeting the emperor. The ceremony involves crouching on one’s hands and knees and knocking the head against the floor, and a full performance of the ritual requires the giver to fall to his knees three times, each time knocking his head to the ground thrice.

Kowtowing to your immediate superior and those above theoretically ended when the Qing Dynasty fell in 1911. Occasionally you will see staff members at various hotels genuflect with less formality and depth, indicating a sense of the past still lives in China.

The idea that China is still the center of the world has reappeared in subtle ways, although perhaps subtlety is not the correct term to use when considering China’s approach to Taiwan – which is unification by any means, with force if necessary.

Today China has reached back into its traditions to create the ‘Taiwan kowtow,’ a kowtow with politics added to it, easily the one overriding political idea that consumes Chinese political cadres, as well as the public.

It appears that every single country’s leaders, freely elected or not, must mouth the golden words of the new Taiwan kowtow.

‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 38

In April 2007, Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong met Germany’s Defense Minister, Franz Josef Jung, in Beijing. Jung said Germany would adhere to the one-China policy.

Perhaps Defense Minister Jung forgot that Germany’s reunification was accomplished by democracy, something at this point that only Taiwan has accomplished.

Again that month, Chinese Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu met the Dutch Foreign Minister, Maxime Verhagen, in The Hague. During the meeting, Verhagen reiterated the Dutch government’s continued adherence to the one-China policy.

In May 2007 Wu Bangguo, one of China’s most senior leaders, was in Warsaw, Poland, to discuss relations between the two countries and to collect the prerequisite Taiwan kowtow, meeting the speaker of the Polish parliament’s lower house, Ludwik Dorn

Dorn said that Poland’s position on the issues of Taiwan and Tibet will never change and that the Polish government and its people firmly oppose any secessionist activities in any forms.

A remarkable statement from a leader in a nation that suffered so much at the hands of so many totalitarian occupiers throughout its history. Poland only found its freedom through the democratic Solidarity movement which allowed it to break away from a communist regime and form a free nation – similar to some of Taiwan’s democratic intentions.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi was again busy in this month, visiting his Canadian counterpart Peter Mackay. Foreign Minister Mackay said that the Canadian government would stick to the one-China policy and would not develop official ties with Taiwan.

While mouthing the required Party line kept his guests happy, perhaps Foreign Minister Mackay’s political party also gained votes from the vast number of Chinese who have made Canada their new home – unless of course some of their reasons for moving to Canada were to escape Chinese communism.

Soon after his election, French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy spoke with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Sarkozy said that Taiwan is an indispensable part of China, and France would firmly adhere to the one-China policy.

France’s famous national motto is ‘Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité – ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.’

But not for Taiwan.