One can’t help wondering if
Rupert Murdoch has had a small change of heart regarding the rulers of
communist China, formerly his valued commercial allies. Either that or
he has less than total control over his empire, because The Australian
has been valiantly pushing the cause of Taiwan, which in reality is an
independent democracy but one which Beijing regards as a rebel province.

Today is the third day running The Oz has featured the story, following up yesterday’s front page splash by Greg Sheridan
calling for Taiwanese officials to be allowed to visit Australia, and
for Australia to lobby for a Taiwanese invitation to the APEC summit.

This
is one of those rare political issues where the principled arguments
are all on the one side. There’s simply no shadow of a case that can be
made, on anything other than raw expediency, for the present policy of
shunning the Taiwanese. Taiwan is a flourishing democracy and a
significant trading partner. Australia is not a big enough player to
set off a diplomatic revolution; it would not make the world a more
dangerous place to allow a few Taiwanese visits. The only problem is
that it would annoy the Chinese.

So watch and see if even a
single politician can be found in either of the major parties who will
stand up for the principled position.