As China has been forcefully interfering in the business practices of other countries and trying to enshrine its new form of oppression over Taiwan into an acceptable international norm, Washington Post released a letter to its editor on 1 August by Louis M. Huang, deputy representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States, who urged all like-minded democratic countries to work together on rising above Beijing’s bullying. The article says:

The July 26 Economy & Business article “U.S. airlines agree to China’s demand,” about Beijing’s bullying of multinational corporations, clearly demonstrated that China’s new tactic of  commercial intimidation is gaining traction. Businesses with major financial stakes in China have been caving in one by one — first those in the high-tech industry and now those in air travel.

More infuriating, Beijing recently pressured for cancellation of the scheduled 2019 East Asian Youth Games to be hosted by Taichung City, Taiwan. Such actions are not conducive to the peaceful status quo of cross-strait relations and only serve to hurt the young athletes in the region. The success of China in stripping Taiwan of the right to host the sports event is a stark warning of what may lie ahead for those not singing its tune.

Taiwan is a proud democratic nation whose achievements in freedom, human rights, human dignity and the rule of law have won international acclamation and are the envy of the people of autocratic China, who have no political liberties or religious freedom. We call on all like-minded nations to work closely with us to curb China’s bullying in the international arena and prevent its interference in the business practices of other countries from becoming an acceptable norm.