Throwing semantic stones
Former deputy legislative speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) has criticized former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) for writing in his new book that the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) are not Taiwanese territory. She has said that such a contention is ridiculous and called on the legislature to strip Lee of the benefits due him as a former head of state.
This is coming from the same person who, when hoping to secure the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) nomination for its presidential candidate, spoke of “one China, same interpretation,” and said that one could not say that the Republic of China (ROC) actually exists.
These contentions are just as ridiculous and Hung should withdraw her candidacy from the KMT’s chairpersonship election.
The Diaoyutais are administered by Japan, and Taiwan is unable to claim them irrespective of whether it actually has a territorial claim to the islands. Think what you will of Lee’s comments, it is what it is.
Taiwan is a sovereign nation, and yet when Hung said that one cannot say the ROC exists, she explicitly said that the nation falls within the administrative jurisdiction of China.
This is a far more ridiculous contention than what Lee has written.
What is that old adage about people in glass houses?
Chen Ho-wen
New Taipei City
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