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Letters: Radical views on rights

Last month I and several other Taiwanese-Americans attended a panel discussion with Ramon Myers of Stanford University, Jialin Zhang (章嘉琳) and Shih Chih-yu (石之瑜) of National Taiwan University. The panel was moderated by Stanford University professor Larry Diamond.

Myers and Zhang talked about a book they had co-authored, titled The Struggle across the Taiwan Strait: The Divided China Problem. Diamond and Shih then spoke about democracy and referred to a recent survey which indicated that an increasing number of people in Taiwan were identifying themselves as Taiwanese rather than Chinese.

Shih, however, insisted that democracy in Taiwan was not a democracy and went so far as to say that Taiwan's democracy was in fact a failure.

When the time came for the audience to ask questions, Susan Liu, a Taiwanese living in the US, said that when the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) were killing each other in China, Taiwan was under Japanese colonial occupation. When Japan ceded Taiwan after World War II, no receiving country was ever named.

In such a situation, the UN Charter stipulates that the sovereignty of a country should be decided by its citizens, based on the right of self-determination. So one can conclude, therefore, that Taiwan never was part of China.

Myers mentioned the Cairo meeting, where it was decided that Taiwan would be handed over to China. I asked Myers whether the Cairo Declaration had been signed by interested countries and he replied that it was not.

I asked why the human rights of people -- regardless of whether they called themselves Taiwanese or Chinese -- had not been respected, to which Diamond replied: "Are you talking about the right of self-determination for the Taiwanese?"

In response to this, Shih said: "Human rights do not belong to enemies."

I could not believe my ears and was dumfounded by Shih's painting the Taiwanese as enemies.

As the panel discussion continued, Myers, perhaps in an attempt to diminish the pressure after Shih's comment, said that even if some people have strong beliefs and opinions about certain subjects, tolerance and dialogue will always be needed.

Diamond then turned to Beijing's threat of military force should Taiwan declare independence, adding that such a development could very well lead to war between the US and China.

A few Taiwanese ladies approached professor Shih after the discussion and tried to have a talk with him.

Radical and uncivil remarks such as those made by Shih during the event need to be brought to the attention of the Taiwanese.

Sophia Deng

California

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