A petition to urge the US government to recognize Taiwan as a nation had garnered more than 6,000 signatures as of press time last night, after being put up on the White House Web site on Tuesday.
The petition followed another that asked the British government to recognize Taiwan as a nation. As of press time yesterday, that petition had collected more than 19,000 signatures.
The US petition said that Washington should reaffirm its commitment to Taiwan and should stand on the side of democracy, not coercion from China.
Photo: US White House Web site
The petitioner’s identity is not disclosed.
“In 1928, the USA was the first government to recognize the Republic of China [ROC]. Now in Taiwan, the government has become a beacon of democracy and freedom in Asia,” the petition said.
It said that with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) being elected the nation’s first female president and the DPP winning a majority in the legislature, Taiwan has shown itself to be a free democracy.
However, it said: “China threatens with military exercises, bullies Taiwanese people when they display national pride and bullies the world into believing there can be only ‘one China.’”
The US should therefore recognize Taiwan as an independent and sovereign nation, it said.
Taiwan has been ruled separately from China for most of the past century — first from 1895 to 1945 by Japan after it defeated the Qing Dynasty and seized it as a colony and later from 1949 after the ROC government lost the Chinese Civil War to the Chinese Communist Party and fled to Taiwan.
According to the White House, if a petition meets the threshold of 100,000 signatures in one month, it will be reviewed by US President Barack Obama’s administration, which will issue a response.
The UK government promises to respond to all petitions that garner at least 10,000 signatures. With 100,000 signatures, a petition would be considered for debate in the British Parliament, according to British law.
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or
RSS