Dr. David Yeau-Tarn Lee called on Australia to play a stronger role in combating the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in his speech “Democratization and Peace in the Taiwan Strait” at the Culture Centre of Overseas Community Affairs Council in Sydney on Sept. 23.
Lee is an adjunct professor at the Graduate Institute of Development Studies of National Chengchi University (NCCU). He served as the vice president of NCCU’s Academy of Social Sciences and the director of Taiwan’s Graduate Institute of National Development. His research topics include political thought, democracy, liberalism, democratization, human rights, and ecologism.
Australia’s Role in Combating CCP in Indo-Pacific
The Australian government has already realized the threat of the CCP and has been doing well in addressing it in recent years, Lee told The Epoch Times.“What a good relationship the Solomon Islands [used to] have with Australia! But no matter how good you treat it, the CCP would bribe [its officials],” Lee said.
“Australia’s awakening is like, the U.S. and the U.K., talking to Australia at the same time about its importance,” Lee said, talking about AUKUS.
Future Potentials of Australia-Taiwan Relations
Asked about what more Australia can do to support Taiwan, Lee said that other than retired politicians, incumbent Australian policymakers can also visit Taiwan, as their counterparts in the United States and Europe have already done.Lee also suggests that governments, including the United States and Australia, may have diplomatic relations with China and Taiwan at the same time, as the historical examples of South and North Korea and East and West Germany.
Australia currently doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Taiwan and acknowledges Beijing’s “One-China policy.”
Threat of Autocratic Regimes
The conflicts between democracy and autocracy are inevitable for human beings, and they may eventually influence the whole world, Lee said.“There has never been a war between democracies, and the democratic system best respects individual freedom and human rights. However, countries in the process of democratization are also relatively less stable and are even more likely to wage wars to deflect internal pressure,” he said.
“If China can promote democratization and smoothly transform into a liberal democracy, a great revolution and a world war can be avoided; if democratization does not occur or democratic transformation does not go smoothly, the fourth great revolution or another world war may occur.”
Lee said he believes that if a third world war ever happens, Australia will be heavily involved.
“It’d be inevitable for Australia to face the consequence of [the CCP’s] dangerous expansion,” he said.
“So I think Australia needs to awaken further,” he said.
“It plays an important role in the confrontation between liberal democracy and autocracy.”