I’m Taiwanese, not Chinese
Recently, the statement “I am Taiwanese” has become a hot topic in the media. This is such a strange issue. If you were born in Taiwan, grew up in Taiwan and lived for a long time in Taiwan, why can’t you proclaim: “I am Taiwanese”?
According to Japan’s provision dated Nov. 18, 1895, Order No. 35 stipulated that residents of Taiwan and Penghu had two years to choose their nationality, to decide if they wanted to be “people of the Qing Dynasty” or “Japanese.” At that time, my ancestors chose to stay and became naturalized Japanese.
Currently, the world widely recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as “China.” Since I am not a citizen of the PRC, I am not “Chinese.” This is such a simple truth. Some people might say that I am a citizen of the Republic of China (ROC) and I therefore have ROC nationality. In fact, before the end of World War II, when I was 25 years old, I was a Japanese citizen. Later, my nationality was changed to that of the ROC, though I was offered no choice and gave no permission. I was unconsciously made a citizen of the ROC under duress from the authorities at that time.
The Japanese Ministry of Justice’s Civil Affairs Bureau issued Civil Affairs No. 438, dated April 19, 1952, which stated that “effective from the day of the enforcement of the San Francisco Peace Treaty [April 28, 1952] ... Taiwanese ... would lose the nationality of Japan.” The fact that Taiwanese were forced to become ROC citizens on Oct. 25, 1945, when Japan surrendered Taiwan to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) authorities, is incompatible with principles of international law and violates the spirit of the UN Charter.
I often wonder, why is it so difficult to be Taiwanese? If you want to clarify the legal status of Taiwan and Taiwanese nationality, you can go to the International Court of Justice at The Hague for an interpretation. By then, I hope you will have woken up. Be proud of being Taiwanese and bravely proclaim that “I am Taiwanese, not Chinese.”
Let me ask President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九): Why did you come to Taiwan? Were you forced to flee to Taiwan? At that time, we did not deny you. Taiwanese welcomed you to stay in this country and worked hand in hand with you. Since then, you have lived a peaceful life in Taiwan. What else are you asking for?
If you do not like Taiwan and do not like to be Taiwanese, you are welcome to leave and go anywhere you like. Perhaps you might go to the US and tell Chinese Americans (including your two daughters) that “I am Chinese, not American.”
YANG LIU HSIU-HWA (楊劉秀華)
Taipei
Because much of what former US president Donald Trump says is unhinged and histrionic, it is tempting to dismiss all of it as bunk. Yet the potential future president has a populist knack for sounding alarums that resonate with the zeitgeist — for example, with growing anxiety about World War III and nuclear Armageddon. “We’re a failing nation,” Trump ranted during his US presidential debate against US Vice President Kamala Harris in one particularly meandering answer (the one that also recycled urban myths about immigrants eating cats). “And what, what’s going on here, you’re going to end up in World War
Earlier this month in Newsweek, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to retake the territories lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. He stated: “If it is for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t [the PRC] take back the lands occupied by Russia that were signed over in the treaty of Aigun?” This was a brilliant political move to finally state openly what many Chinese in both China and Taiwan have long been thinking about the lost territories in the Russian far east: The Russian far east should be “theirs.” Granted, Lai issued
On Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) met with a delegation from the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University in California, to discuss strengthening US-Taiwan relations and enhancing peace and stability in the region. The delegation was led by James Ellis Jr, co-chair of the institution’s Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region project and former commander of the US Strategic Command. It also included former Australian minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne, influential US academics and other former policymakers. Think tank diplomacy is an important component of Taiwan’s efforts to maintain high-level dialogue with other nations with which it does
On Sept. 2, Elbridge Colby, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development, wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal called “The US and Taiwan Must Change Course” that defends his position that the US and Taiwan are not doing enough to deter the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from taking Taiwan. Colby is correct, of course: the US and Taiwan need to do a lot more or the PRC will invade Taiwan like Russia did against Ukraine. The US and Taiwan have failed to prepare properly to deter war. The blame must fall on politicians and policymakers