A group of 20 college students gathered yesterday at the National Taiwan University campus in support of a May 11 march by the Alliance to Campaign for Rectifying the Name of Taiwan.
Chou Fu-yi (周馥儀), a senior Political Science major at NTU who was also the convener of yesterday's activities, said that the college students all recognized, loved and devoted themselves to Taiwan's culture and the study of it.
According to Chou, most hadn't met each other until yesterday, but they had the same faith -- to love and protect their motherland.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
She told the Taipei Times that she noticed the UN called Taiwan: "Taiwan, province of China" on their Web site at www.un.org/Depts/unsd/methods/m49alpha.htm#ftna, while she was doing a research paper last spring.
On April 9, she saw a poster of the march to be held May 11 to promote "Taiwan" as the official name for the nation. The poster inspired her to organize yesterday's activity to show college students' support for the idea.
"First of all," she said, "my friends and I spread word of the activity by e-mail. All of us believe it is very important to rectify our name. It's about our country's dignity."
"According to the UN, after 1971, the ROC disappeared from the international stage because its seat was taken by the PRC, which is now recognized as the only China in the world," she said. "It will confuse people if we stick to any name that's related to China. Plus, the PRC does not rule Taiwan. The UN's calling of Taiwan a province of China does not reflect reality."
The students also encouraged the public to write e-mail messages to skydaughter@yam.com.tw to show their support. They say they will forward the messages to the UN after the march on May 11 to make sure that Taiwan's voice is heard. In the meantime, they also built a Web site at
http://marianlin.bravepages.com/taiwan/index.htm to deliver their messages on the issue.
"This Web site will be launched on Monday," Chou said. "Also on Monday, we will fax our official statement to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the legislature's Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee and hope that our own government officials and lawmakers can do something about this, too."
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all