After reading the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) article by Lee Min-yung (李敏勇) on Feb. 19, I agree with his view that “because of the remnants of the Republic of China [ROC], the illusion of existence within another government’s system, Taiwan has yet to complete the construction of a sovereign independent state. Supporters of the ROC need to look at this plight.”
The ROC government-in-exile has occupied Taiwan for more than 60 years, resulting in great harm to Taiwanese.
The media have recently been discussing the so-called “1992 consensus,” the “1996 consensus,” a “constitutional consensus,” a “Taiwan consensus” and other political slogans. These are just slogans created to mislead the public. They do not help solve the issue of Taiwan’s sovereignty and independence.
Some people are also just using elections to gain power within the system. However, the existence of the privilege elected officials enjoy does not solve the issue, either. Taiwan is still trapped in the system of the ROC government-in-exile.
Thirteen years ago, in the article “Taiwanese Sovereignty, Independence and the Republic of China,” my late husband, C.C. Yang (楊基銓), concluded that “the only way is to clearly define the distinction between Taiwan and China — the clearer the better — and believe that if we do all these, Taiwan can gain the acceptance of all countries and emerge to become a truly sovereign and independent state.”
Over the years, I pondered why Taiwanese always want to struggle for power within the system. Why not use historical evidence and principles of international law to break away from the ROC government? Is it because of the selfishness of Taiwan’s political figures?
The recent incident of the Philippine government sending Taiwanese fraud suspects to China is the product of the system of the ROC government. If you don’t want to break away from the system, you can only blame yourself and not President Ma Ying-Jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
To save Taiwan from Chinese annexation, we should all recognize this fact and work on breaking away — as soon as possible — from this government-in-exile system.
Yang Liu Hsiu-hwa is chairman of the International Cultural Foundation.
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