Dalai Lama calls on Taiwan to Safeguard Democracy

Nicholas Salmons

9/1/2009

10:51 pm

Some background info: Early last month, Taiwan experienced a series of catastrophic landslides due to the Typhoon Morakot. With the level of destruction exceeding $360 million and the death toll currently well above 600, officials have been pressured from the inside to respond to the crisis appropriately.

Last weekend, the Dalai Lama made a trip to Taiwan for the express purpose of prayer for the victims and to "bring hope and encouragement to the survivors." However, despite the Dalai Lama’s stated intention to “steer clear of the political,” a number of his statements alarmed several authoritative parties. Charging the people of Taiwan, who now “enjoy democracy,” to “think common interest and work united” no matter their individual political affiliations, the Dalai Lama’s remarks sparked hostile reactions from both Beijing and Taiwanese pro-China protestors viewing the exhortation as a means to influence Taiwanese ideology and promote Tibetan independence, in spite of the Dalai Lama’s call for China and Taiwan to uphold “very close and unique links.” Overall, the Dalai Lama’s visit was viewed as nothing less than controversial, as it directly opposed the Chinese mandate of his exile. Yet while Beijing “resolutely opposes” the Dalai Lama’s presence in Taiwan, authorities have apparently not held Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeoul solely responsible, in an attempt to maintain relations along the Taiwanese Strait.

Before this research I personally knew very little about these issues (China-Taiwan relations, the Dalai Lama’s part in said relations, Typhoon Morakot). While I still would like to know more about the actual political relations of Taiwan and China, and how an incident like this might affect them, the complexity of these relations is already evident, just from reading a few recently published articles. Knowing China to be a communist state, and knowing a bit of surface information about Taiwan’s struggle for democratic realization and individual recognition within the People’s Republic of China, it is not hard to imagine the consequences that could arise from any pro-democratic statement made by a particular public figure with whom a vast majority of Taiwan’s population is deeply connected.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/08/31/world/AP-AS-Taiwan-Dalai-Lama.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=democracy%20global&st=cse

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1046548&lang=eng_news&cate_img=83.jpg&cate_rss=news_Politics_TAIWAN