Taiwanese must discard the imposed colonial regime of the Republic of China (ROC) and establish a state of “Taiwan” that can protect the nation from Chinese invasion, Sovereign State for Formosa and the Pescadores Party Chairman Cheng Tzu-tsai (鄭自才) said on Monday.
He had to speak up on the issue of Taiwanese sovereignty and Taiwan’s international status after former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and several pro-China academics wrote about disputes in school textbooks dealing with Taiwan’s history, Cheng said.
“It is a fact that Taiwan remains under its ‘undetermined status,’ which is well-known in the international community,” Cheng told a seminar at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
“The allies after World War II did not ‘return’ Taiwan to be ruled by Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] regime. It was a fabrication about the KMT’s claim over Taiwan’s retrocession to China,” he said.
The best recourse for residents of Taiwan and the Penghu Islands is to follow the international accords in the post-World War II period on decolonization, and hold a plebiscite on self-determination to achieve statehood, as had happened in many countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific, Cheng said.
Ma and pro-China academics have written letters criticizing two publishing houses over textbooks that mention the “undetermined status of Taiwan,” which Ma said was “nonsense.”
Cheng provided photocopied materials and historic documents from US and other nations to support his claim that the Allies had only given temporary custody of Taiwan and Penghu to the KMT regime, while the legal status was not spelled out, and the residents have the right to a plebiscite for self-determination.
He said that Japan signed the 1951 San Francisco Treaty only renouncing all right, title, and claim to Taiwan and Penghu without explicitly deciding on the sovereignty status of the two territories.
Taiwan historian Huang Sheng-feng (黃聖峰) said that many Taiwanese independence advocates are unhappy with the stance taken by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of maintaining the “status quo” by upholding the ROC political framework, which would mean Beijing can lay claim to Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.
“The best recourse is to follow the international laws and conduct a plebiscite for self-determination, by which the people of Taiwan and Penghu can declare to the world their decision to become a new Taiwan nation. This is the way for us to achieve statehood, and deter military invasion and annexation by China,” Huang said.
Cheng, 82, is a senior figure in the Taiwanese independence movement.
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