In defiance of democracy and public opinion, deep-blue forces advocate that there is only one China and eventual unification is inevitable, that the Republic of China (ROC) Army and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) are both China’s armies, that cross-strait relations are domestic affairs involving international factors and that without the ROC Constitution it would be very difficult to advance cross-strait relations. These dark-blue opinions display a kidnapper mentality.
The deep-blue supporters mainly come from the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Huang Fu-hsing (黃復興) branch, a special branch of the KMT whose members are military veterans or their family members. The implied meaning of the name is “descendants of the Yan and Yellow emperors; revive China.” From its inception, Huang Fu-hsing consisted mostly of key players from the army’s KMT party headquarters, popularly known as the Wang Shih-kai (王師凱) headquarters, which had an even more imperial ring to it and was specifically established to ensure loyalty to the party. They fled to Taiwan together with Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), proudly carrying the anti-communist banner, eventually became the rulers of Taiwan, and rapidly rose in rank and status. Now, as they approach old age, they wish to abduct Taiwan and accept China’s annexation of the nation.
Leading a delegation to Beijing last month, Hsu Li-nung (許歷農), a retired general and former director of the General Political Warfare Department who once taught us to hate the “Chinese bandits,” told a forum that “unification is the common goal of both sides of the Taiwan Strait.”
He also said: “Taiwan’s desire to retake the mainland, to restore its territory [to the ROC], and especially to unify China in accordance with Sun Yat-sen’s (孫逸仙) Three Principles of the People is also an attempt to achieve national unification.”
Give me a break. On what basis do the elderly members of Huang Fu-hsing claim the Taiwanese desire to retake China and seek “national unification”? As diehard ROC loyalists, why do these old men not simply say the ROC and Chiang seek to retake China? Absorbing the support of just about anyone they could get their hands on to help them keep up a semblance of legitimacy, the KMT engaged in divisive colonial rule for quite a long time, but who among these people that the single-party state elitists believe to be substandard actually sing the same tune as the old men of Huang Fu-hsing?
When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) defeated the KMT in China, Chiang and acting president Lee Tsung-jen (李宗仁), were both forced to flee China. Both of them clearly understood that Taiwan was not legally part of China. However, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), a second-generation KMT refugee, uses the fact that a few Taiwanese “representatives” participated in the establishment of the ROC Constitution as a pretext for forcibly hijacking Taiwan based on this Constitution and returning us to the dead-end “one China” of the Chinese Civil War era.
The civil war that took place between the KMT and the CCP had absolutely nothing to do with Taiwan, yet Taiwan was still somehow sacrificed for this specific war. The regime of the two Chiangs essentially hijacked Taiwan in an attempt to retake the mainland and restore it to the ROC. Ma and the rest of the deep-blue Mainlanders have hijacked Taiwan and are about to accept China’s annexation — and what an anti-democratic evil they are in the process of committing.
During Taiwan’s Martial Law era, we suffered the tragedy of the persecuted as we were coerced into yelling their slogans about “retaking the mainland.” On the other hand, if we freely choose now to betray ourselves in our own democracy, we are simply digging our own grave.
James Wang is a media commentator.
TRANSLATED BY KYLE JEFFCOAT
Chinese actor Alan Yu (于朦朧) died after allegedly falling from a building in Beijing on Sept. 11. The actor’s mysterious death was tightly censored on Chinese social media, with discussions and doubts about the incident quickly erased. Even Hong Kong artist Daniel Chan’s (陳曉東) post questioning the truth about the case was automatically deleted, sparking concern among overseas Chinese-speaking communities about the dark culture and severe censorship in China’s entertainment industry. Yu had been under house arrest for days, and forced to drink with the rich and powerful before he died, reports said. He lost his life in this vicious
George Santayana wrote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This article will help readers avoid repeating mistakes by examining four examples from the civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forces and the Republic of China (ROC) forces that involved two city sieges and two island invasions. The city sieges compared are Changchun (May to October 1948) and Beiping (November 1948 to January 1949, renamed Beijing after its capture), and attempts to invade Kinmen (October 1949) and Hainan (April 1950). Comparing and contrasting these examples, we can learn how Taiwan may prevent a war with
A recent trio of opinion articles in this newspaper reflects the growing anxiety surrounding Washington’s reported request for Taiwan to shift up to 50 percent of its semiconductor production abroad — a process likely to take 10 years, even under the most serious and coordinated effort. Simon H. Tang (湯先鈍) issued a sharp warning (“US trade threatens silicon shield,” Oct. 4, page 8), calling the move a threat to Taiwan’s “silicon shield,” which he argues deters aggression by making Taiwan indispensable. On the same day, Hsiao Hsi-huei (蕭錫惠) (“Responding to US semiconductor policy shift,” Oct. 4, page 8) focused on
In South Korea, the medical cosmetic industry is fiercely competitive and prices are low, attracting beauty enthusiasts from Taiwan. However, basic medical risks are often overlooked. While sharing a meal with friends recently, I heard one mention that his daughter would be going to South Korea for a cosmetic skincare procedure. I felt a twinge of unease at the time, but seeing as it was just a casual conversation among friends, I simply reminded him to prioritize safety. I never thought that, not long after, I would actually encounter a patient in my clinic with a similar situation. She had