- The Guardian
- Issue #2136
Skyline of Taipei, Taiwan. Photo: Heeheemalu – Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The so-called “Halifax Forum” has held a meeting in China’s Taipei on 20-21 February, 2025. From the announcement on the Forum’s website, this will include both open and closed sessions to discuss issues of “security” and “democracy.”
To begin with, this is clearly a provocative move, since the island of Taiwan is recognised internationally as an inalienable part of China. It is clear that despite all the nice buzz words the Halifax Forum promotes, it actually supports separatism, extremism, and terrorism.
However, let us have a closer look at what the Halifax Forum claims to be. Initially established on a Canadian initiative (hence ‘Halifax’), the Forum has people from Canada, the USA, various countries in Eastern and Western Europe, one or two from African countries on its board of directors and ‘team.’ No one, it seems comes from China, Australia, or New Zealand.
The funding of the Halifax Forum is revealing, since one source of funds is NATO – the aggressive military alliance led by the USA that has attacked countries such as Yugoslavia (and dismembered it), Afghanistan, and more recently Russia. NATO is, as we know, facing a crisis, with the USA at the time of writing disdainfully casting aside “old Europe” and directly suing for peace with Russia in relation to Ukraine.
While the Halifax Forum boasts of funding from NATO, Boeing, and other sources, it claims to be “non-partisan” in its promotion of “democracy.” Readers will know that “democracy” here stands for Western political systems imposed on countries against their will and indeed against their historical logic. In other words, they try to promote capitalist democracy and refuse to recognise the superior form of socialist democracy practised in China. Indeed, if one looks at the “Halifax China” page, one sees the lies and distortions concerning China that have become common in some corners of the West. We are led to the following conclusion: since the Halifax Forum takes an anti-China stance, it is in essence a partisan and ultimately anti-democratic organisation.
However, there is a deeper problem that is endemic to Western approaches: they think that the political system determines everything else. Thus, if they can change a political system in their favour, they think that they have solved the problem. This is topsy-turvy. Why? It is the economic system that determines and shapes in complex ways the political system. Real and qualitative change takes place through socioeconomic transformation, as we see with China’s revolution, socialist construction, and reform. Suitable political structures emerge as a result.
In socioeconomic terms, we note the following: that the island of Taiwan’s derivative and imbalanced capitalist approach has led to economic stagnation is clear; that it relies on the mainland for its economic survival is also clear; that it will in due time normalise relations with the mainland is the path of history.
The Halifax Forum inverted approach simply tries to delay the reality of Chinese compatriots across the straits coming truly together once again.
