An Aboriginal group yesterday criticized Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator May Chin (高金素梅) over her remarks at a summit on cross-strait relations in Beijing.
Chin, who is of Atayal and Manchu ancestry, on Friday claimed to represent Taiwan’s Aborigines at the summit, where she advocated strict adherence to the so-called “1992 consensus” and the idea that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait are part of one China,” the Chinese-language China Times said.
Chin also called for a deepening of the cross-strait relationship and greater unity between the people of Taiwan and China, the paper said.
Photo taken from the Indigenous Youth Front Facebook page
“There is no consensus on the ‘1992 consensus.’ This ‘one China’ you [Chin] speak of has nothing to do with the indigenous people of Taiwan!” the Indigenous Youth Front said in an open letter.
Aboriginal officials should stick to their duties and not use their titles as bargaining chips to accumulate political capital, front representative Savungaz Valincinan said.
“Going to China and engaging in an exchange of personal benefits tramples on and degrades the sovereignty of the nation’s indigenous people,” she said.
Within four hours of its release, the letter, which lambasted other Aboriginal officials, such as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Sufin Siluko, Yosi Takun and Sra Kacaw for “losing sincerity” by promoting closer ties with China, had 500 signatures.
“We are Taiwanese Aborigines, not Chinese minorities. Please do not claim to represent us,” the letter said, adding that Aborigines have never signed an agreement with a modern nation to abandon their sovereign rights, and Aboriginal communities had fought for many years to have their sovereignty respected by the government.
The hard-fought achievements of the Aborigines of past generations made it possible to have the Republic of China Constitution amended to secure equal status and political participation for today’s Aborigines, it said.
Those who take part in political events in China as “Taiwanese Aboriginal representatives” are overstepping the boundaries of their positions, which are to protect the interests of Aborigines in the Legislative Yuan, it said.
Those representing Aborigines in the legislature are not involved at the community level, where local groups and their leaders were already in place, it said.
The failure of China’s “one country, two systems” formula in Hong Kong was proof that Beijing would never respect the sovereignty of Aborigines, it said.
“Although we are not fully satisfied with the current government in Taiwan, we are working hard to change it,” the letter said. “We definitely cannot accept a system that concentrates sovereignty into a single nation and does not respect Taiwan’s diversity.”
The “1992 consensus” — a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted in 2006 to making up in 2000 — refers to an understanding between the KMT and Beijing that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS