Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator May Chin’s (高金素梅) attendance of a military parade in Beijing was panned by Aboriginal representatives yesterday.
“She can only represent her personal ethnicity or political identity — not all of Taiwan’s Aborigines,” Assembly of the Atayal Nation Secretary-General Utux Lbak said. “Whether you look at the matter from the perspective of culture, language, history or archeology, the vast majority of Taiwan’s Aborigines have absolutely no connection with China.”
Chin represents “mountain Aborigines” in the Legislative Yuan and was the only sitting legislator cited in media reports as being part of former vice president Lien Chan’s (連戰) controversial delegation to Beijing earlier this week.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
The delegation met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) before attending a military parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Imperial Japan in World War II.
Aboriginal rights activists yesterday condemned Chin for placing priority on advocacy related to China’s War of Resistance Against Japan, stating she was out of touch with Aboriginal concerns.
“During World War II, the indigenous peoples of Taiwan were not connected in any way with the Chinese resistance,” Pingpu Indigenous People’s Association board member Huang Chih-huei (黃智慧) said.
“We paid a heavy price, because we belonged to the Japanese side,” she said.
Indigenous Peoples’ Action Coalition of Taiwan Secretary-General Omi Wilang that many members of Aboriginal groups were recruited during World War II to join the Takasago Volunteers (高砂義勇軍), a division of the Japanese army that fought alongside Japanese regulars in the South Pacific.
He criticized Chin for allegedly advocating for the demolition of a memorial to the volunteers in New Taipei City’s Wulai District (烏來).
Omi Wilang said illegal Chinese laborers were a major source of competition to Aborigines for low-skill agricultural work, condemning Chin for allegedly using Chinese donations to solidify her electoral base.
Omi Wilang cited a donated bus in Hsinchu County that he said was covered with Chinese Communist Party material, while also alleging that Chin distributed more than NT$100 million (US$3.05 million) in relief aid from the Chinese government following Typhoon Morakot.
“As far as I am concerned, anyone who is willing to treat us with fairness and justice is a friend,” Chin said in a statement.
“Restricting indigenous peoples’ freedom to make friends is to restrict their development, condemning us to perpetual poverty and backwardness,” Chin said.
She said her attendance of the Beijing parade reflected her willingness to participate in “any” celebration of the end of World War II, adding that she had attempted to attend the official ceremony hosted by Taiwan’s armed forces, but was told that there were no seats available.
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