One-China and the two-state hypocrisy

On one hand we have symbolic acquiescence to recognising only one China, but have a push to split Israel and Palestine as a two-state solution. So why these seemingly disparate solutions?

China sees the Chinese in Taiwan as being of the same culture, so think they should be ruler of them all. Of course, only 70 years earlier, they were only too happy to wipe them out, though they succeeded in wiping out a lot of their own in the process. But just like they view Hong Kong as a cultural aberration, so they see Taiwan as the same. All that is needed is to reabsorb them, and purge them of resistance.

Israel was given carte blanche by Great Britain to take over Palestine, despite promising independence to the Arabs there through T E Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia, but only so they could defeat the Turks, then allies of Germany. Israel was further given full custody of Palestine in 1948, leading to more cultural cleansing to rid the Jewish state of opposition to their theocracy. Of course the native Palestinians garnered support from Arab neighbours, but only because they didn't want Israel expanding into their territory.

Meanwhile, larger world players have drawn political and economic alliances around the bullies or the oppressed, depending upon their agendas, some of which seems to be rather dichotomous as their political agendas are at odds with their economic agendas, or rather, dependencies. Everyone deals with Taiwan, but avoid calling them by name or openly supporting them for fearing economic retribution from China. This is what happens when money becomes more important than principles. The bullies feel vindicated and emboldened to bully and demand more.

It is clear that these bully states are using others' economic or political dependence upon them to get their own way, even if it is ultimately destructive to themselves and the planet. Fair principles must be upheld, even if it creates economic and political problems, because the consequences of not doing that are loss of freedom of association and binding a nations' peoples to the whim of dictatorships.

People everywhere are persuaded to see money as a path to freedom, and it can lead to freedom of association and the ability for individuals to make better choices for their lives, but mostly is is used by the greedy and the power-hungry to achieve dominance, and lock people and nations into destructive cycles of dependence. If we really believe in freedom, we need to free ourselves from dependence upon those who seek to rule and control us, at both a personal and a nation level.