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OPINION:
Last month, voters in Taiwan completed an exercise in constitutional governance unknown to their counterparts in communist China. Consistent with provisions of Taiwan’s governing 1947 constitution, which guarantees the right of recall, voters across various constituencies rebuffed an effort to unseat legislators they had put into office in January 2024.
Despite partisan bickering, several salient issues emerged, including debate over the Chinese communist regime’s influence on Taiwan’s democracy, its pushing of propaganda and the extent to which the long arm of communist transnational repression seeks to harm Taiwanese politicians up to and including the vice president.
There are lessons the United States would do well to heed, for front-line Taiwan bears the brunt of Chinese communist tactics that are also employed against us.
In 1999, two People’s Liberation Army colonels, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, published a book, “Unrestricted Warfare,” which considered everything short of kinetic as a battlefield.
How is it that we have so many fentanyl overdoses in the United States? Read “Unrestricted Warfare,” and you’ll understand.
What is lawfare, and how is open access to our court system weaponized against us? Read “Unrestricted Warfare,” and you’ll understand.
Simply put, the book is a primer on what we may term political warfare, aimed squarely at the United States.
Standing in the way is the de facto island nation of Taiwan, the de jure Republic of China.
We sometimes fail to appreciate how much vitriolic attention Taiwan, as a front-line state, absorbs from mainland China that otherwise would be directed at the United States.
As the vital center of the first island chain, Taiwan is a buffer and our first line of defense against the People’s Republic of China, which seeks global hegemony, supplanting the United States as the world’s preeminent power.
In this regard, Taiwan is too often taken for granted by too many in the United States.
Taiwan’s security is America’s security, and the political warfare and transnational repression campaigns that are waged against Taiwan in an amplified manner are also being waged in the U.S. It is often evident among Chinese diaspora communities in America targeted by the Chinese Communist Party.
It is because of this need to protect American citizens and those lawfully in this country who are targeted by CCP transnational repression — in particular those of ethnic Chinese, Tibetan or Uyghur descent — that I, joined by Democratic Rep. James McGovern, Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley and Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, reintroduced the Transnational Repression Policy Act last week.
Again, Taiwan’s example is instructive. Taiwanese Vice President Bi-khim Hsiao, a friend to many of us in Washington from her time as ambassador, was targeted during a trip to the Czech Republic for a “demonstrative kinetic action,” according to a Czech military intelligence spokesman, said to be a staged vehicle accident while she was in her car.
Similar methods are deployed in the United States against Democracy Wall dissident Wei Jingsheng. Mr. Wei was in his car driving home when two cars attempted to force him off the road.
We can also learn from how Taiwan counters CCP political warfare. The CCP bombards Taiwan with propaganda and false narratives, seeking to manipulate the information space, including through the use of deepfake video clips created using artificial intelligence.
To address that, users of the messaging app Line, which is prevalent in Taiwan, can flag statements that appear problematic. The nonprofit Taiwan FactCheck Center provides context, allowing the user to become a better informed consumer of information.
The Taiwanese experience, whereby democracy rose from an authoritarian and martial law past, has a lot to teach regarding the importance of freedom and free speech — lessons to take to heart from Asia’s most vibrant democracy.
Finally, Taiwan has a story to tell, not only to its people or Americans but also to the people of China, bypassing the CCP and vaulting over the Great Firewall the CCP has built.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has been giving speeches on 10 topics, including sovereignty, democracy, constitutionalism and the rule of law.
Of course, his principal audience is the people of Taiwan. Yet judging from the way the CCP mouthpiece the Global Times has been responding, his message is also penetrating the ears of people in China who live under communist oppression.
Under Xi Jinping and his policies, the Chinese Communist Party doubled down on repression and the Chinese economy was wrecked. Thus, the Chinese people have neither prosperity nor freedom.
The Taiwan message to China is that you can have prosperity and freedom, but so long as Mr. Xi and the CCP remain in power, the Chinese people will enjoy neither and the people of Taiwan will always be under threat.
I hope for a free Taiwan, forever independent of communist control. I also hope for a free China, independent of communist control.
• Rep. Christopher H. Smith is a Republican representing New Jersey’s 4th Congressional District.
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