The Sunflower challenge
Leaders of the Sunflower movement have urged the US government to review their nation’s “one China” policy, for it only helps the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to manipulate the “status quo,” slap the US’ face and trap Taiwan in a political purgatory.
Sunflower leaders held a press conference on Thursday last week at the National Press Club in Washington and urged the US government to listen to claims from the younger generation of Taiwan.
The US’ “one China” policy allows the Republic of China (ROC), under the cover of Taiwan’s governing authority to represent Taiwanese in kowtowing to China. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) always plays the two-faced trick of championing the ROC inside Taiwan and Taiwan in the international community to fulfill his life’s dream of unifying Taiwan with China. Ma has repeatedly abused Taiwan’s credit to prolong the final years of the ROC government-in-exile.
Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) said that there is “a surge of powerful strength in Taiwan from the younger generation. They do not belong to the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] or the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP]. It is a modern civil power. The US is too naive to believe that its ‘one China’ policy will maintain peace and stability in the Western Pacific. It is just the other way around, not only allowing the PRC to swallow Taiwan step by step, but seriously hurting the US’ interests in East Asia and the South China Sea. The US’ ‘one China’ policy is out of date; it is time to completely review and revise it.”
Chou Fu-yi (周馥儀), a member of the Black Island National Youth Front, has said that the US owes a debt to China for being so courteous and conniving in its gradual suppression of Taiwan. Taiwan’s younger generation has lost confidence in the US.
Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) criticized the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) for having a double standard and wrongly deciding that the Sunflower movement had been organized by the DPP.
Under the US’ “one China” policy and given the efforts by the KMT to promote ties with China under the so-called 1992 consensus, the DPP has tried to freeze the Taiwan independence clause in its charter, Chen said. He urged the US to listen to the voices of the public, not the politicians’.
Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said the Sunflower movement has nothing to do with the DPP. He said David Brown — a professor and an AIT board member — was wrong to link the movement to the DPP without any evidence. He believes Taiwan and US uphold the same democratic values.
Who should have the right to determine the future of Taiwan, the 1.3 billion Chinese or the 23 million Taiwanese? China has continued to grow the US’ “one China” policy and now is big enough to annex Taiwan.
The US’ “one China” policy was first mentioned in the Shanghai Communique on Feb. 28, 1972. China and the US each have their own versions. The US acknowledged China’s claim of sovereignty over Taiwan, but did not agree to it. Then-US National Security adviser Henry Kissinger did not think there would be a “one China” at all because of the ROC’s anti-communist policies.
The KMT and Chinese Communist Party have drunk together and ended their family feud and now there is “one China” in the modern world. The US can no longer play with ambiguous policy.
In Taiwan today more than 90 percent of the people call themselves Taiwanese, not Chinese. It is time for the US to officially derecognize the ROC and declare that Taiwan is not part of the ROC or part of the PRC.
John Hsieh
Hayward, California
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