Once again the nation is left wondering whether the existence of Taiwan is a taboo subject even within its own borders, after a national flag was forcibly removed to placate visitors from the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
The villain of the piece, chief referee Lee Hung-chi (李鴻棋), made himself the target of criticism after asking three students at Kainan University to take down a 1m-high national flag during a game between Taiwan University All-Stars and China’s Tianjin Polytechnic University, during this year’s Asian University Basketball Championship on Oct. 7.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) added to the controversy the next day while speaking on the legislative floor, when he interpreted the students’ actions as being deliberately designed to provoke conflict and saying that people should instead look at “the tens of thousands of Republic of China [ROC] flags, waving across the nation.”
If the premier though his comments clever or witty, he was wrong.
On the contrary, his remarks implied that he considered the students’ expression of patriotism as troublesome.
This also calls into question the idea that granting Chinese students admission to Taiwanese universities will help to reduce China’s hostility toward Taiwan, a claim frequently made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration.
If even the administration’s highest-ranking official is unable to appreciate patriotic university students “reminding” the Chinese team of the nation’s existence, then what does that say about government policy?
Part of the rationale behind the KMT’s policy of allowing Chinese students to enroll in local universities is to enhance their understanding of Taiwan and our democracy, in the hope of nurturing future Chinese leaders that are friendly to Taiwan.
If we accept the logic of this argument then it should go without saying that this “understanding” should not be a partial or “sanitized” understanding of Taiwan’s political reality, stripped of national sovereignty, flags, official titles and national anthem.
What are these Chinese students going to learn about Taiwan if, having stayed here for a few years, Taiwan’s flags are missing and the national anthem muted wherever they go.
Such a situation would send them the wrong message, namely that Taiwanese have internalized the denial of their own existence and could easily lead to the conclusion that China should maintain its hostility to Taiwan.
Extreme as it may sound, this scenario is far from impossible if schools, civic organizations and government agencies continue to keep the national flags and anthem hidden from Chinese visitors.
As the lyrics of Wound of History, written after the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, say: “We can’t cover our eyes and ears and pretend nothing is there.”
The bus full of Tianjin Polytechnic University players that turned around and left Kainan when they were greeted with a campus full of ROC flags last week are an example of people who continue to cover their eyes and ears. The question is whether we should be complicit in their act by making it easier for them to deny Taiwan’s existence?
Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji (吳清基) last Thursday praised the Kainan students’ patriotic act and said that Chinese teams traveling to Taiwan should all recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty. Wu also promised to punish schools that hide national flags or cancel the singing of the national anthem to please Chinese visitors, though he did not mention any specific disciplinary measures.
Kudos to Wu for being the only official in the KMT administration willing to give the Kainan students credit for their patriotism. More national leaders should follow suit.
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