EP021 - The Maintainer
from The Red Leaf Express Hosted by Joey Chou
In March 1996, China fired ballistic missiles into the waters off Taiwan's coast. Not at Taiwan. Near it. The target was the psychology — a message delivered to every Taiwanese voter preparing to cast a ballot in the island's first-ever direct presidential election: look at what proximity to us costs you. Look at what your democracy is worth to us. The voters looked. Over ten million of them. Seventy-six percent turnout. They went to the polls anyway. The United States sent two aircraft carrier battle groups to the Taiwan Strait. The largest American naval deployment in Asia since Vietnam. Beijing backed down. The election proceeded. And the democratic Republic of China on Taiwan — the version of Taiwan that had spent decades governed without a direct popular vote — became, in a single day, something new. A democracy that had chosen itself under fire. That was thirty years ago this year. President Lai Ching-te marked the anniversary on May 20th with a speech at the Presidential Office. It was, by any measure, a serious document. And it landed in the most complicated week Taiwan has faced since he took office. -- Hosting provided by SoundOn
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