The 98-year-old Marxist Taiwan independence advocate Su Beng (史明) yesterday urged Taiwanese to arm themselves with knowledge about pursuing independence, while saying that his assistance to president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was strategic, during the launch of his memoir that he spent 20 years writing.
Arriving in a wheelchair at the book launch in Taipei, Su was greeted by hundreds of supporters who packed the room with applause and shouts of “wansui” (“live long”), while a long line of people queued up to wait for Su to sign books they had purchased.
Born to a wealthy family in Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) in 1918, Su obtained a degree in political economics from Waseda University in Tokyo, where he became a Marxist.
Photo: Lo pei-der, Taipei Times
In 1942, after graduating, Su traveled to China to join the communist revolution, only to be disappointed by the Chinese Communist Party’s brutality and ethnic manipulation, leading to his escape back to Taiwan in 1949.
However, his personal experience of years of living and fighting side-by-side with the Chinese communists turned Su into an advocate for Taiwanese independence.
Convinced that the then-authoritarian Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime could only be overthrown by an armed revolution, Su was engaged in several bombing plots.
However, a failed attempt to assassinate then-president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) led to Su’s exile to Japan.
In recent years, Su has campaigned for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), though he, as a Marxist and an advocate of Taiwanese independence, might not fully agree with the mainstream values of the party and of Tsai.
“Certainly, I have expended much effort on Tsai’s election campaign this time, because I wanted her to win,” Su told the audience. “Why so? There is only one reason: I do not want Taiwan to be taken over by China.”
“Socialism and revolutionary theories are not just about fighting. Sometimes, you have to compromise for Taiwan’s future, it is high-level strategy,” Su added.
He said that some people criticize him for what he was doing, accusing him of wanting to profit from Tsai’s election, despite having held his ideologies since when he was younger.
“Whoever makes such statements does not know how things are. I would only take it as a joke,” Su said.
He said that allowing the KMT to win is no different from allowing China to take over Taiwan, because the KMT and China are partners, adding that one key reason the KMT is still able to have an influence in Taiwan is because people do not study enough.
“I beg you to read more,” Su said.
“It is important to arm yourself with knowledge, remain loyal to your ideologies and stay in solidarity with your comrades,” he said.
DPP Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), DPP legislators Pasuya Yao (姚文智), Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) and Lee Ying-yuan (李應元), and New Power Party Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) all attended the book launch.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS