There is a long-held Beijing-inspired misperception among international observers that Taiwanese independence is a move by a local province to break away from the motherland -- somewhat similar to Quebec's move to split from Canada.
The Taiwanese independence movement is more similar to that of the US' move to independence, as Taiwan has historically been colonized by various parties, including: the Portuguese, the Spaniards, the Dutch, the Chinese, the Japanese and then the Chinese again.
The Taiwanese independence movement is thus a form of decolonization.
This explains why in spite of nearly 15 years of democratization, Taiwan doesn't seem much closer to full independence. Colonialism stubbornly lives on in Taiwan, and this can be attributed to the treacherous nature of the last colonial occupation brought forth by the late dictator Chiang Kai-shek (
The first two decades of KMT rule of Taiwan was remarkable for its lack of plans for Taiwan other than to milk it for the purpose of either supporting the KMT's war in China against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or financing Chiang's fantasy of retaking China.
Even while forcing 6 million Taiwanese to feed and shelter 1 million shell-shocked Chinese refugees, the KMT's economic policy for Taiwan consisted of little more than speeding up minting of Taiwanese currency.
The inevitable consequence was rampant inflation, which saw the prices of consumer staples soaring more than ten-fold each year from 1945 through 1949. Reality set in when the KMT government issued new Taiwanese currency to reflect the shrinkage of public wealth on paper -- to the tune of replacing 40,000 old Taiwan dollars with one new Taiwan dollar, thus lightening every Taiwanese's pocket, both figuratively and literally.
Amid the plundering, the KMT's strong-arm tactics gave rise to the 228 Incident, which resulted in the slaughter of tens of thousands of by and large unarmed Taiwanese. The death toll was estimated at one in every 300 Taiwanese.
To buttress its post-atrocity control, the KMT imposed martial law and the period of White Terror that ensued silenced Taiwanese for 38 years -- and the power and effect of that intimidation linger on to this day.
In 1971, Chiang's colonialist mindset did arguably the most far-reaching damage to Taiwan when he turned down an offer to allow Taiwan to retain a seat on the UN after Beijing took over China's seat.
The KMT's hankering for the old colonial government never waned over the past three decades. With pan-blue stalwarts Lien Chan (
Their visits, together with China's economic boom, appear to have fueled the reemergence of Chinese colonial yearning in Taiwan, albeit with one distinction: The baton of colonialism has now been handed over to the second generation of Chiang adherents.
What's sobering is they continue to find support among Taiwanese -- evidence of how 60 years of China-centric education and captive mentality have taken their toll on Taiwanese.
The rank of these bleeding-hearts might not be significant enough to recall the enthusiastic welcome Taiwanese gullibly showered on the first batch of Chinese to arrive in Taiwan after the end of World War II before relations turned sour.
But it should be a wake-up call for those who do not want history to repeat itself. It is time to stop the KMT and Beijing from luring and using Taiwanese for economic expedience.
There are two facets to building Taiwan's statehood, one internal and the other external.
Decolonization would constitute the entirety of the internal struggle while externally Taiwan has to look to the US to acquire any residual sovereignty. It is increasingly evident that the US was the last clear holder of Taiwan's sovereignty before controversy set in more than 60 years ago.
For years, Washington has been holding this residual sovereignty as a license to meddle in Taiwan's democratization at the behest of Beijing and on account of Washington and Beijing's mutual aversion to confrontation.
In order to be effective in a democracy, the interference has had to take advantage of Taiwan's internal polarization. Consequently, the effect of that residual sovereignty would be inversely proportional to the extent of Taiwan's decolonization such that US recognition should be automatic at the completion of Taiwan's internal success. It would simply go against the US' founding principles for Washington to turn its back on a people that desire to be free of colonial exploitation.
In summary, domestic consolidation to rid Taiwan of colonialism is the key to Taiwan's struggle for formal statehood. Once that is accomplished, other pieces will fall into place.
Given that Beijing's claim on Taiwanese territory is scarcely more than an insidious attempt at imposing new Chinese colonialism on Taiwan and that Beijing relies on a collaborating coalition of pan-blue leaders, the decolonization of Taiwan wouldn't succeed without a thorough political trouncing of this proxy of Beijing.
The next nationwide election might pose the earliest such opportunity, given the KMT's recent vow that once it regains power, the party would reverse the latest wave of name change masterminded by the current administration.
The battle is thus joined. And, Taiwan's independence war continues.
Huang Jei-hsuan
California
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