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
When US budget carrier Southwest Airlines last week announced a new partnership with China Airlines, Southwest’s social media were filled with comments from travelers excited by the new opportunity to visit China. Of course, China Airlines is not based in China, but in Taiwan, and the new partnership connects Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport with 30 cities across the US. At a time when China is increasing efforts on all fronts to falsely label Taiwan as “China” in all arenas, Taiwan does itself no favors by having its flagship carrier named China Airlines. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is eager to jump at
The muting of the line “I’m from Taiwan” (我台灣來欸), sung in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), during a performance at the closing ceremony of the World Masters Games in New Taipei City on May 31 has sparked a public outcry. The lyric from the well-known song All Eyes on Me (世界都看見) — originally written and performed by Taiwanese hip-hop group Nine One One (玖壹壹) — was muted twice, while the subtitles on the screen showed an alternate line, “we come here together” (阮作伙來欸), which was not sung. The song, performed at the ceremony by a cheerleading group, was the theme
Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised eyebrows recently when he declared the era of American unipolarity over. He described America’s unrivaled dominance of the international system as an anomaly that was created by the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War. Now, he observed, the United States was returning to a more multipolar world where there are great powers in different parts of the planet. He pointed to China and Russia, as well as “rogue states like Iran and North Korea” as examples of countries the United States must contend with. This all begs the question:
In China, competition is fierce, and in many cases suppliers do not get paid on time. Rather than improving, the situation appears to be deteriorating. BYD Co, the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer by production volume, has gained notoriety for its harsh treatment of suppliers, raising concerns about the long-term sustainability. The case also highlights the decline of China’s business environment, and the growing risk of a cascading wave of corporate failures. BYD generally does not follow China’s Negotiable Instruments Law when settling payments with suppliers. Instead the company has created its own proprietary supply chain finance system called the “D-chain,” through which
RSS