The People’s Republic of China is engaging in what the White House calls “Orwellian nonsense.”
The PRC is angry at private commercial air carriers because they refer to Taiwan as a “country.”
Oh, brother.
It’s complicated.
Taiwan broke away from China in 1949 after a bloody civil war. The communists kicked the Nationalist Party out of power. The Nationalists moved to Taiwan and set up a separate government. The PRC runs the mainland; Taiwan has taken on a new identity, although it is not recognized throughout most of the world as a sovereign state. China calls Taiwan a “renegade province” and has vowed to take it back — by force if necessary.
Believe me. It is. I’ve been to Taiwan five times since 1989. It is a country.
Thus, the White House’s criticism of the PRC is on point. As The Hill reported: “This is Orwellian nonsense and part of a growing trend by the Chinese Communist Party to impose its political views on American citizens and private companies,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
Sanders also vowed that “China’s efforts to export its censorship and political correctness to Americans and the rest of the free world will be resisted.”
“The United States strongly objects to China’s attempts to compel private firms to use specific language of a political nature in their publicly available content,” she said.
Sanders is correct to condemn China for seeking to dictate to private firms how it should refer to countries — and governments — with which they do business.
Taiwan operates in a sort of parallel universe with the rest of the world. The United States withdrew its diplomatic recognition of Taiwan — officially known as the Republic of China — in 1978. The United Nations expelled Taiwan at that time so that the PRC could join the body.
Yet, Taiwan continues to function as a de facto independent nation, although it has never officially declared its independence from the PRC. Taiwan has flourished and has become a vibrant state that functions with many of the trappings of sovereignty without the actual designation.
As for the People’s Republic of China, it need not impose its political will on private firms.