Taiwan’s elected officials were not given a seat at this week’s summit in Beijing between the American and Chinese leaders. Yet the Taiwanese people – or, rather, their resolve to run a free country by respecting individual sovereignty – were very much there. 

So much so that China’s overall stated goal for the summit was to gain the United States’ help in breaking Taiwan’s democratic spirit.

The specific requests by Chinese leader Xi Jinping are that U.S. President Donald Trump oppose any attempt by Taiwan to officially declare independence and that he end U.S. military sales to the second-freest nation in Asia. Whether Mr. Trump acts on those requests is almost secondary to the fact that Mr. Xi indirectly admits he is failing to break Taiwan’s civic identity of individual freedom and inherent rights. 

Despite years of trying to subtly influence the Taiwanese by incentives or coercion, Mr. Xi has not subsumed the island nation to bring it under the control of the Chinese Communist Party. The party fears that its 1.4 billion subjects on the mainland might be influenced by Taiwan’s 23 million people, especially in their rejection of the CCP’s ideology that sovereignty resides with the party – because it believes ordinary Chinese don’t know what’s good for themselves or the country. 

Already, one-third of people in China oppose an armed invasion of Taiwan, according to a 2023 survey. Only 1% support an immediate war.

“The fact that Beijing spares no effort to pressure governments ... into erasing Taiwan’s existing sovereignty makes clear that despite all its power, Xi Jinping’s CCP cannot marginalize Taiwan alone – it requires our help to do it,” wrote Taipei-based American journalist Chris Horton in Nikkei last month.

After more than three decades of democratic rule, Taiwan’s confidence in demonstrating that sovereignty is inherent to individuals, not the state, has made it a global example. In a speech last year to a group at the European Parliament in Belgium, Taiwan’s vice president, Hsiao Bi-khim, said one of the country’ss goals is to help all democracies thrive. 

“We are not just defending what we have, but building what we want the future to look like, where free people and societies are more connected, more united, and more capable, and of course stronger together,” she said.

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Taiwan now ranks as the world’s 12th-most democratic country, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. And many of its economic statistics per capita surpass those of China. The bedrock for such success lies in an understanding that each individual’s dignity and intelligence are the basis for building a harmonious and caring society.

The founder of this newspaper acknowledged that “Human will-power may infringe the rights of man.” But Mary Baker Eddy also wrote, “Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage.”