Hundreds of protesters associated with pro-Taiwan groups yesterday staged a demonstration outside the Taipei office of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), urging the US to take over Taiwan and expel the Republic of China (ROC) government.
“We are here to send a message to the AIT, and would like the AIT to pass it on to the US government,” Formosa National Legal Strategy Association chairman Roger Lin (林志昇) told the demonstrating crowd. “We would like the US government to help us to expel the ROC government — an exiled Chinese government — because the ROC government cannot represent the Taiwanese.”
Lin said the ROC government took control of Taiwan on behalf of the Allied troops after World War II when Japan openly renounced all its rights, claims and titles over Taiwan proper and Penghu.
“It’s the US that brought in the ROC government to Taiwan, so the US government should take the responsibility to expel it from Taiwan,” he said.
He said that in the 1952 San Francisco Peace Treaty signed between Japan and the Allied forces, Japan merely gave up its claim over Taiwan and Penghu, but did not state to which country Taiwan’s sovereignty would be transferred.
While saying that his ultimate goal is to establish an independent Taiwan, Lin urged the US government to temporarily govern Taiwan during the transitional period after the ROC government is expelled and before the Taiwanese could establish their own country.
“We should overthrow the ROC government and wipe out the Chinese Nationalist Party regime!” Lin shouted.
Besides the Taiwanese activists, several members of the Friends of Taiwan Independence, based in Osaka, Japan, also joined the demonstration.
“We feel that we, as Japanese, are obliged to help the Taiwanese in their fight for independence,” Matsui Mitsuhiko, vice-president of the group said. “Japan gave up its claim over Taiwan, but we did not give it to any other country.”
“Therefore, we Japanese absolutely support the Taiwanese to found their own independent country,” he said.
This is the fourth consecutive year Lin has organized demonstrations in front of the AIT’s Taipei office to call for US help in expelling the ROC regime.
Besides demonstrations, Lin had also filed lawsuits in US courts, however, the courts either declined to hear the case or said that the court would not be involved in political matters.
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