Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

“Taiwanese shrug off China threat and place their trust in ‘Daddy America,’” ran the headline of a Financial Times article on Aug. 23, bemoaning Taiwan’s apparent complacency in the face of China’s military intimidation and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) talk of “reunification of the motherland.”

The article cited a poll in April that found only 39.6 percent of respondents expected a cross-strait war, and noted that many Taiwanese beneficiaries of US-donated COVID-19 vaccines had expressed their thanks on Facebook with the words: “Thank you, Daddy America.”

Rhetoric apart, little is truly familial about the Taiwan-China-US tangle.

One of the four referendums that are to be put to the vote on Dec. 18 is about opposing imports of pork that contains traces of leanness-enhancing agents. The rationale behind the proposal is that such substances are harmful to human health. At first glance this seems reasonable, but it actually has no medical or scientific basis. The real purpose of the referendum is to lay the groundwork for next year’s local government elections, and the presidential and legislative elections that are to take place in 2024.

The referendum’s proposers think that opposing imports of US pork on the grounds of safeguarding Taiwanese’s health would enable them to win these elections, but at its core, the proposal is all about cozying up to communist China while opposing the US. The proposers think they can only beat the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which is on the same team as the US, by teaming up with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).