Former political exile Cheng Tzu-tsai (鄭自才) yesterday launched the Sovereign State for Formosa and Pescadores Party in Taipei.
The party’s two main goals are to attain self-determination for Taiwanese and achieve statehood as an independent nation, because the issue of Taiwan’s sovereignty was not clearly resolved after World War II, based on the Treaty of San Francisco, which came into effect in 1952, Cheng told a news conference.
Japan merely renounced its rights to Taiwan and Penghu (the Pescadores), and the Allied powers only granted temporary authority to Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) Republic of China (ROC) as a “provisional custodian” at that time, he said.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
“The Treaty of San Francisco left Taiwan and the Penghu islands with an undetermined political status, with their residents being ‘stateless’ all this time,” he said.
“However, the ROC regime has concealed this truth by using its education system and the government tools” at its disposal, he added.
“The ROC is an exile regime, that fled from China after the civil war to occupy Taiwan. The Chinese government as People’s Republic of China also has no reason or legal basis to claim Taiwan,” Cheng said.
Under the treaty’s provisions, Taiwan and Penghu are the former colonies of Japan, and their people have the right to self-determination and to achieve statehood as an independent nation through a referendum, he added.
“The textbook description of Taiwan’s retrocession, or returning to the ROC, rule is a total lie. We want people to know that what they learned about post-World War II Taiwanese history and Taiwan’s status were fabrications and misrepresentations by the ROC government,” he said.
The ROC regime has no legal authority over Taiwan and Penghu, Cheng said.
Party executive Liu Che-chia (劉哲嘉) said they would officially establish the party’s leadership at a members’ congress on June 30, adding that Cheng would serve as interim chairman.
“We will seek people with good standing to run in some districts for next year’s legislative elections,” Liu said, adding that they talked with the Democratic Progressive Party last week.
Cheng, 82, is a senior figure in the Taiwanese independence movement.
He and Peter Huang (黃文雄) plotted and carried out an unsuccessful assassination attempt against then-vice premier Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) in New York on April 24, 1970.
Both were students in US universities at the time and were involved with the US chapter of World United Formosans for Independence.
Wanted by the US government, Cheng skipped his bail and fled to Sweden and later moved to Canada, before returning home in 1991.
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday that China using armed force against Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, allowing the country to mobilize the Japanese armed forces under its security laws. Takaichi made the remarks during a parliamentary session yesterday while responding to a question about whether a "Taiwan contingency" involving a Chinese naval blockade would qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, according to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. "If warships are used and other armed actions are involved, I believe this could constitute a survival- threatening
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘ADDITIONAL CONDITION’: Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to protect its right to participate in next year’s meeting, the foreign ministry said The US will “continue to press China for security arrangements and protocols that safeguard all participants when attending APEC meetings in China,” a US Department of State spokesperson said yesterday, after Beijing suggested that members must adhere to its “one China principle” to participate. “The United States insists on the full and equal participation of all APEC member economies — including Taiwan — consistent with APEC’s guidelines, rules and established practice, as affirmed by China in its offer to host in 2026,” the unnamed spokesperson said in response to media queries about China putting a “one China” principle condition on Taiwan’s
RSS