Taiwan Today

THIS CHINESE NEW YEAR REALLY "MADE OUR DAY" A small herd of promising New Year's days have dawned for the Republic of China. But none is abreast of this Year of the Ox. This is the best educated, healthiest, best fed and clothed and sheltered and most physically secure population in 5,000 years of Chinese history. It is better transported and otherwise machine-serviced, has more leisure and rec­reation, and not only enjoys modern democratic institutions, but wider op­portunity for individual achievement than any preceding generation. On the world scene, this Republic has survived a massive campaign to cut it off from other nations, then gone on to increase its influence many fold by dint of its productive achievement. The foreign trade of this small island is equal to that of the entire China mainland. The magnitude of Free China's economic buildup is indicated in its fifth-ranking position among trading partners of the United States in spite of the island's size. ROC planes and ships circle the globe, involved in the commerce of many nations. Its college graduates have not only gone on to advance their own country's process in science and technology, but to notably contribute in universities and on scientific and technological staffs abroad. Its products help clothe and entertain and facilitate communications and commerce for people round the globe. AND as much as we might dislike to admit it, Free China has some responsibility for Teng Hsiao-ping's economic directions—that is, it became inevitable that someone who would try to emulate the ROC's accomplishments would be called in for lifesaving experiments in the wake of Communism 's devastating mainland failure. Without us-well, consider the Soviet Union, which does not need to consider some free Russian nation's demonstration of achievement possibili­ties for the deprived Soviet people—Their quiescence is, at least in part, be­cause no one can demonstrate that any other current Russian-developed way of life could be any better. Little wonder, then, that Peking has recently pressed its abortive "one country, two systems" unification format—How pleasant it would be for Communist China if the "one country" (read the Chinese Communist Party) could be entrusted to administer Taipei as a subordinate system dependent on what passes for Peking's development dynamic. Perhaps the ROC's blessings in this Year of the Ox should also help "make the day" for many sober viewers in other countries of the free world. There would inevitably be, for example, a rather sharp reduction in Washington's (and others') leverage in their Communist China relationships in the absence of a vigorous Free China. After all, who would really want to see a resurgent Communist China once again overtly forwarding its violent and grandiose schemes in the world? In this Year of the Ox, we are truly freedom's "China card."