China, Taiwan and the battle raging to ‘erase an identity’

The further China leverages its increasing global clout to “erase Taiwan’s international identity,” the more Taiwan is defining itself as a place of hard-won democratic freedoms and socially inclusive values.

If there is one metric that defines Taiwan in this context, it is the unequivocal opposition to China’s surveillance-state authoritarianism, even as Beijing’s state media claim otherwise.

To be sure, last week, China hijacked one of Taiwan’s few remaining diplomatic allies, Burkino Faso – Taiwan’s second diplomatic loss in a month, as the other was the Dominican Republic – reducing the number of countries worldwide that diplomatically recognize Taiwan to just 17, not including Vatican City.

In the same week, China blocked Taiwan’s observer status – even of its journalists – from the World Health Organization’s annual assembly in Geneva.

In a similar move, China recently demanded that 36 international airlines change their online-booking systems to label Taiwan as a province of China. The White House, in what might be described as a refreshing – and unusually apposite – literary sleight of hand, decried the demand as “Orwellian nonsense.” All the same, most airlines have complied.