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China has gone through very few changes with respect to political, economic and governance transformation assessed by the Bertelsmann Transformation Index. No clear trend can be observed in any of these three dimensions, with scores ranging between differences of less than one point since the BTI 2006. While China’s economy status and governance were evaluated with medium scores, the lack of democratic openness has positioned China within the last of the BTI’s categories regarding political transformation.
Being forced to leave behind –at the age of 27, perhaps forever– her country, family and dreams seems a heavy price to pay. What sparked the authorities’ fury against Rei was her participation, in late 2022, in a silent protest in Shanghai against the Covid restrictions, in which attendees displayed blank sheets of paper. Such conduct is not a criminal offence in the free world, but it can change the course of a life in China. Talking is forbidden. So is silence.
Despite gaining international attention, the Chinese government has intensified its propaganda efforts and disinformation campaigns to obscure the reality on the ground. In addition, ever since the start of the genocide, seven years ago, the Chinese government’s repression extends beyond East Turkistan, targeting Uyghur human rights defenders, journalists, activists, and members of the diaspora worldwide.
The promulgation of the National Security Law that develops, according to Article 23 of the Basic Law (the so-called mini-Constitution of the island), the crimes of treason, secession, sedition, or subversion against the central government, among others, somehow culminates the involution of a Hong Kong finally brought back to the discipline of the Chinese Communist Party.
Taiwan has been running free elections for almost thirty years now. The world should finally take note. Most European governments have not even dared to name the winner of the elections in their reactions. Such self-restraint does not only betray a model democracy.
Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections carry great significance for the overall stability of US-China relations and the cohesion of Indo-Pacific regional alignment.
While the companies are trying to maintain their profitable position on the global semiconductor market, for politicians the chip industry is something they can use in diplomatic negotiations, and more importantly, it is viewed as crucial for the maintaining of Taiwan’s de facto independence.
No people should be given the untenable choice between subjugation and annihilation, and if we force such choices on free peoples, we not only lose our humanity but, more problematically, we increase the likelihood that other tyrannical regimes will conclude that it is possible to coerce, terrorize, and subjugate their neighbors.
In a context of a general lack of knowledge about China in Latin America, it is not only that there is no such thing as a Chinese-style democracy; it is that it is a mistake to believe that the Chinese model is better just because it may be more effective. Democratic systems are neither infallible nor perfect because they’re based on freedom, checks and balances, rule of law, participation, transparency and human rights. And China's effectiveness stems precisely from the absence of all these attributes.
