The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has changed after losing its grip on power. Not from being authoritarian to becoming a democratic party, but rather from opposing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to befriending it.
A steady stream of KMT leaders and symphatizers have been paying their respects to the leaders in Beijing, and former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) has publicly said that he wants to join the CCP in suppressing Taiwan's independence. This means that he wants to join hands with a communist party that is depriving the Chinese people of their right to choose, in order to block the free choice of the people of Taiwan.
First, all of this kowtowing is disrespectful toward all of the KMT members and their families who have been persecuted by the CCP. During the Chinese Civil War alone, millions of KMT officials and soldiers were killed by the CCP, and the innumerable relatives left in China by KMT soldiers and members have suffered humiliation by the CCP. Their children have been the target of systematic prejudice when it comes to education, employment and promotion, and they have had to take the brunt of every political movement. Every relative to a KMT member or soldier in China has a tragic tale to tell. So how can KMT members travel to Beijing, drink to the CCP, and then come back to face the descendants of KMT members?
These kowtowing trips are also disrespectful to the Chinese people. It is common knowledge that the CCP is unloved by the Chinese and that communism is evil. Fearful, hypocritical and lacking confidence, the CCP behaves like a coward walking through a graveyard, shouting nationalist slogans about its growing military strength and attacking Taiwan to muster some courage, while last year alone, it had to face almost 70,000 public demonstrations and protests -- almost 200 per day. This gives some measure of the public's dissatisfaction with the CCP.
The Taiwanese going to Beijing to pay their respects, however, use nationalist slogans such as "people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are ethnically Chinese" to deliberately and pointedly blur the systemic opposition between Taiwan's democracy and China's dictatorship. They recognize the legitimacy of the communist regime and help extend the CCP's hold on power, thereby seriously hampering any Chinese developments toward democracy. "Oppose Taiwan's independence" is the slogan China currently shouts the loudest in order to extend its hold on power.
Furthermore, these kowtowing trips are disrespectful toward the people of Taiwan. The KMT says it wants to join the CCP in suppressing Taiwan's independence, but what is "Taiwan's independence?" It is only one free option resulting from the people's right to choose freely.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has shown the same shortcomings as any other government, but who have they killed? Who have they imprisoned for pursuing democracy and freedom? The KMT during its past dictatorship -- ? and the CCP during its present dictatorship -- ?have killed innummerable people, and many witnesses have seen them commit criminal acts.
Taiwan has been ruled by the Dutch, the Qing dynasty and the Japanese. When the Taiwanese people have now, finally, won their freedom, they want to be the rulers of this land, and will not accept the murderous CCP regime. This is a reasonable demand and a basic human right. Those who travel to Beijing to pay their respects do not respect the public's right to choose, nor do they value Taiwan's freedom. Instead, they want to join hands with the CCP to deprive the Taiwanese people of their right to choose. This is a challenge to humanity, and history will punish these destroyers of democracy.
Cao Changqing is a writer based in the US.
Translated by Perry Svensson
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US