Source: Taiwan Foundation for Democracy
Last month, Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) sent a delegation to visit His Holiness the Dalai Lama and officials of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamshala, India. The meetings displayed Taiwan’s growing commitment to strengthening multilateral ties among groups threatened by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), notes analyst Wen Li.
The notion of multilateral cooperation is embodied by emerging concepts proposed by the DPP following the trip to Dharamshala, including the “Silk Road of Democracy” (SRD) and “Democratic Arc,” which seek to forge stronger connections among Taiwanese, Hong Kongers, Tibetans, Uyghurs, as well as Chinese supporters of democracy within the country and overseas, he writes for The Diplomat:
While the image of the historic Silk Road is often evoked by China in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the “Silk Road of Democracy” adapts this Sino-centric lexicon to convey an entirely different message. Whereas the BRI is used to export Chinese totalitarianism, the SRD seeks to import democratic values toward the Chinese public by actively engaging in friendly dialogue, launched from locations abroad and areas traditionally considered on the “margins” of the Chinese sphere of influence,
The cross-fertilization of social movements has played a crucial role among activists from Hong Kong and Taiwan, especially among an entire generation influenced by the twin movements of 2014 — Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement and Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution, Wen adds. RTWT
