"We have to fight for ourselves."

On solidarity with Ukraine in Taiwan

We’re heartbroken by the news from Ukraine. So much unnecessary death and suffering, families separating or going in hiding or walking miles to find safety. For those of us in other parts of the world, the worst part is surely the feeling of helplessness. It seems wrong to be alive while elsewhere adults and children are senselessly dying, wrong to continue living as though life were somehow normal. Albert can’t stop thinking about the viral video of a Ukrainian soldier saying goodbye to his young daughter, who is being evacuated while he will stay to fight. He picks her up and holds her, sets her down, then breaks down in tears. Our own two-year-old daughter has the same puffy jacket, makes the same gestures. “Would I be able to do the same?” he asked me. “Leave behind my family to fight?”

Taiwan and Ukraine aren’t at all the same, of course, but the similarities are irresistible. Both are young democracies in which the memory of authoritarian rule is still fresh. Both bristle at the …