Avoiding the US-China War: Sell Out Taiwan

The NY Times offered a rare piece in an Establishment newspaper: one that pointed out that the US and China are on a collision course. Unfortunately, basing its argument on a book by Hugh White that argues for a power-sharing agreement in East Asia, it quickly reaches for the usual....

To avoid this, White’s suggested East Asian order would establish red lines that the United States and China would both agree not to cross — most notably a guarantee not to use force without the other’s permission, or in clear self-defense. Most sensitively of all, while China would have to renounce the use of force against Taiwan, Washington would most probably have to publicly commit itself to the reunification of Taiwan with China.

According to the author, White also argues that the US should cease working for democracy and human rights in China.

There's not much to say here. White is primarily thinking about power sharing in East Asia; in this kind of thinking democracies have allies for the same reason that Congressmen have principles: so they can sell them.

I think, instead of offering Taiwan to appease Beijing, the US should take White's suggestion and go one better: sell out Australia to Beijing. It's practically empty, it's much bigger than Taiwan, and the beaches are better. Who cares if the people of Australia object? Isn't the greatness of a realpolitik move measured by the number of one's friends it betrays?

For those interested in the long version of why selling out Taiwan won't work, see this post on Finlandizing Taiwan. The short version is simple and obvious: it doesn't address the problem, which is Chinese expansionism -- instead, it rewards it.
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Daily Links:

• Typhoon updates from the CWB. Looks like it might miss us completely. We could use a break.
• Did Facebook suspend the accounts of Hong Kong and Taiwan activists on purpose? 

  Facebook is blocked in mainland China, but is used heavily by the rest of the Chinese-speaking world, including Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. Political activists in Hong Kong and Taiwan use Facebook as their primary tool to mobilize support for their causes and activities. On June 1, when scores of activists' accounts were deactivated in Taiwan and Hong Kong, outrage and conspiracy theories quickly spread across the Internet. Activists in Hong Kong suspected political foul play, given that their accounts were suspended just as they were organizing major protests to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the June 4 massacre.

• China Airlines to buy 10 planes. Boeing or Airbus?

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