Joseph Solis-Mullen | The Libertarian Institute

Democratization as Regime Preservation

by Joseph Solis-Mullen | Sep 5, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

When in the 1970s it became increasingly clear Taipei and its allies in the United States were no longer going to be able to postpone Washington’s recognition of the Chinese Communist Party government in Beijing, the longtime dictator of Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek, grasped for a solution to the problem of how his regime was to survive de-recognition as the official government of China. The answer? Democratization. This strategy, which his successors embraced and ultimately fulfilled over the course of the 1980s and 1990s, proved far-sighted. Taiwan’s democratization process began in the late...

The Third Taiwan Straits Crisis and Its Enduring Lesson

by Joseph Solis-Mullen | Aug 29, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

In the words of Justin Raimondo, from his 2011 article, “How decision-makers react to events beyond our borders is decisively shaped by domestic political considerations.” This theory of foreign relations, libertarian realism, eschews the typical narrative of mysterious collectivist forces that drive events. It thus places blame firmly where it belongs when things, as they so often do, blow up in everyone’s faces: politicians catering to domestic political constituencies, the focus being on their own careers and not a fictitious “national interest.” Using the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis...

How Taiwan Became an Issue

by Joseph Solis-Mullen | Aug 22, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Given that official Washington seems increasingly determined to fight Beijing over Taiwan, concerned Americans are right to wonder: how did the question of Taiwan come to be of such purported importance to these global powers? While several closer islands, such as the Penghu (or the Pescadores as they are now known), were incorporated into the Chinese polity during the period of Ming blue water exploration in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Formosa (or Taiwan as it came to be known) never was. After shuttering its large scale naval activities in the mid-fifteenth century, the Ming...

The Taiwan Problem You (Probably) Don’t Know

by Joseph Solis-Mullen | Aug 15, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Taiwan is today lauded for its vibrant democracy, open economy, and progressive society. However, behind this shining exterior is a dark and brutal history that is frequently overlooked; or in the case of Washington and its loyal corporate mouthpieces, purposefully ignored. For before its democratization in the 1990s, Taiwan was a harsh authoritarian police state under the rule of Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo. This period, marked by severe repression and systemic terror, is an essential chapter in Taiwan’s history that Americans should know, particularly given the enduring...

Further China Reading

by Joseph Solis-Mullen | Aug 3, 2024 | Blog

From a reader: “Hello Joseph. I just ordered your book, and I noticed it was short. I would like to know if there is an up to date book on American foreign policy towards China that you could recommend that is well-researched and truthful with good policy suggestions. Thanks! I know next to nothing about America-China relations and I am looking forward to reading your book.” My response: “I wish I could […] the fact I can’t is a major reason I am working on a much longer book focused solely on the evolution of American policy toward China. Thanks for reading!” So, yes, once the National Debt...

A Temporary Calm in the South China Sea

by Joseph Solis-Mullen | Jul 22, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

After a particularly fraught period, complete with water cannons, near collisions, and an actual melee where a Filippino sailor apparently lost a thumb, things in the South China Sea look set to settle down following Manila and Beijing’s reaching of a "provisional arrangement" to deescalate tensions over the disputed South China Sea reef known as Second Thomas Shoal. The deal, which was announced over the weekend by a spokesperson for the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs, will see Chinese coastguard vessels allow the resupply of the Philippines’ forces stationed on the disputed...

The News From Across the Pond

by Joseph Solis-Mullen | Jul 16, 2024 | Featured Articles, Politics

The recent elections in the United Kingdom and France underscore a broader trend of political stagnation and directionless muddling within Europe. Despite clear signals from voters rejecting the status quo, the established elites are resisting substantive changes, thus perpetuating a cycle of political inertia. In the United Kingdom, the Labour Party's landslide victory marks a significant shift in the political landscape. Labour, under Keir Starmer, secured a historic majority, unseating the Conservatives after fourteen years in power. However, while this victory represents a clear mandate...

Washington Takes Another ‘L’ in China Policy

by Joseph Solis-Mullen | Jul 10, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

In the September 15, 2020 edition of The New York Times, the American Enterprise Institute’s Chris Miller crowed that with its barrage of sanctions Washington would “Decapitate” the Chinese telecom giant Huawei. In this premature pronouncement Miller, whose book Chip War is a favorite of Beltway-Sinophobes, is just the latest in a long line of arrogant American hawks predictably proven wrong. Indeed, despite years of sanctions and trade restrictions, Washington's attempt to crush Huawei, a flashpoint in the escalating fight between the United States and China, has fallen flat. Huawei is not...