Lucas: Biden enjoys Nantucket while China has Taiwan in crosshairs

Nantucket is not Taiwan.

But it is an island. And like Taiwan, it sits off the coast of a great land mass.

In Taiwan’s case, the land mass happens to be China. For Nantucket, it’s Massachusetts.

President Joe Biden has spent Thanksgiving on Nantucket since the 1970s. This year is no different, and he and his family are on the island retreat for the holiday.

His counterpart, President Xi Jinping of China, does not have an island like Joe, which is one of the reasons he wants to invade Taiwan. It’s a case of island envy.

Every president, even a communist/capitalist/dictator like Xi, needs an island getaway. The pressure of the job makes spending time on an island a restorative necessity.

No man is an island, and no island is a man, except of course for the British Isle of Man set in the Irish Sea. But that is another story.

An island vacation can give a president the opportunity to put an ocean between him and the people he pretends to love, even though they are paying for it.

You could go back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who used to spend quality time at his summer home on Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada, or to the Kennedys, who had the island-like compound in Hyannis and a place on Squaw Island.

Former presidents need to go to an island as well, which is why Barack Obama hangs out at his secluded 30-acre estate on nearby Martha’s Vineyard.

Even failed presidential candidates love island life. John Kerry, who was defeated for president in 2004, also has a place on Martha’s Vineyard.

In a case of island hopping, or island shopping, Kerry moved to the Vineyard from Nantucket. He now can spend Thanksgiving holiday time with both presidents — Obama, who made him secretary of state, and Biden, who appointed him climate czar.

Islands are important. Only in China’s case the island Xi wants must be bigger than Nantucket. It is a matter of appearances.

If China is to outstrip the United State as the world’s leading military and economic superpower, then it behooves China to have an island retreat bigger than Nantucket or Martha’s Vineyard. With more missiles, too.

Hence, Taiwan.

Joking aside, China covets Taiwan, claiming it wants to reunite the island, even though it was never officially part of China.

Taiwan is made up of people whose ancestors fled the horrors of Communist China. And while China may want Taiwan, Taiwan does not want China.

Outside of the poor North Koreans, nobody flees to China; they flee from China.

The island of Taiwan came to prominence after the Chinese Civil War (1936-1949) when the Communists, led by Mao Zedong, defeated General Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist. Army. Chiang, with the remnants of his beaten army, fled to Taiwan and established the Republic of China on Taiwan.

Although Chiang was a despot who oppressed the local population, the country moved toward democracy following his death in 1975.

Taiwan is now the open democracy that communist China was supposed to be when the west opened its doors to it.

In fact, Taiwan, a nation of some 24 million people, is an economic powerhouse with a strong military.

It is the world’s largest producer of microchips that are vital in the working of computers, cell phone, satellites, cars, airplanes, washing machines and other devices.

It is also of strategic importance in that it stands in the way of Chinese expansion and takeover of vital shipping lanes in the South China Sea.

China is the bully on the block. And, despite U.S. support for Taiwan, China is threatening to attack.

So maybe it is time to turn the tables and have Taiwan threaten to invade China and not the other way around.

Don’t smirk. It almost happened once. That was in 1950 when Mao sent an army into North Korea to attack the U.S. forces during the Korean War. The U.S. and its South Korean allies had chased the invading North Korean Army all the way to the Chinese border.

There were cries of “Unleash Chiang,” which meant approving plans to have the Nationalist leader launch a diversionary attack on mainland China from Taiwan.

It did not happen. Maybe now we should be chanting, “Unleash Joe.”

Yeah. Right.

Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.