Many people don’t realize there are two Chinas.

The first is the authoritarian behemoth who lied and caused worldwide deaths from the coronavirus outbreak, the one who is making a run at the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and the China that has been taking advantage of the United States for decades in trade.

The other is a small island off the Chinese coast that the Beijing communists view as a breakaway province. That is Free China, Taiwan. Chased off the mainland by Mao Tse-Tung and a communist military victory in 1949, they have turned from exiles and a beaten people into one of the most vibrant free economies in the world. Taiwan also sports a functioning democracy. So why did the U.S. break off diplomatic relations with them in 1979? The China card.

During the Cold War the U.S. used normalized relations with Red China to drive a wedge between the Chinese Reds and their fellow Marxists in Moscow. It worked. The Soviets, never a tolerant people at the best of times and thus who were always suspicious of the Chinese on geopolitical and racial grounds, clashed with the Chinese military at the Amur River in 1969.

Soon after, U.S. President Richard Nixon paid an official state visit to Beijing and the U.S. established secret listening posts on the Chinese border with the Soviets. Several years later the price of continued work together with the Chinese against the Soviets was the sellout of longtime American ally Taiwan. Jimmy Carter paid the price in 1979 and the Taiwanese have been out in the cold ever since.

But that is changing. Taiwan has quickly produced and manufactured masks and other items to help America fight the virus. This is opposed to the perfidy of the Red Chinese. Taiwan has also continued to be an American defense partner in the Pacific.

As various conservative members of Congress debate the eventual cost to China of Chinese duplicity in virus reporting and response, one option on the table is officially recognizing Taiwan as an independent nation. Though Beijing would have fits over this, in the current national and presidential mood, their cries would ring hollow.

This piece was written by David Kamioner on April 23, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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