Today is the 54th Retrocession Day. This used to be an occasion when Taiwanese were supposed to celebrate their return from 50 years of Japanese colonial rule to an indefinitely long period of mainland Chinese colonial rule. Hardly something to wave flags about, unless you are forced to, that is.
It is not that following Taiwan's return to the Republic of China, the island was first raped, then terrorized and finally occupied by a colonial regime far more intolerant of the Taiwanese than the Japanese had ever been, though this is of course, the essence of the island's melancholy history for the first 40 years after the end of WWII.
The real matter to ponder is that Retrocession Day is itself a lie, but until it is clearly known as such the folly of modern Taiwan paying homage to the shibboleths of its occupiers will continue and the ambiguity and ambivalence about who and what they are that defines Taiwanese identity -- much to the detriment of the island's security -- is likely to continue.
The lie of retrocession is that Taiwan was returned to mother China. The truth is that following Japan's unconditional surrender, the lands it occupied had to be run by someone. The Allies, to whom Japan had surrendered, decided that it was easier to let China run the place rather than for the Americans to do it -- though this was also a considered option. And that is what brought the KMT to Taiwan.
Forget the Cairo Declaration or the Potsdam Proclamation, which said that the Allies would give Taiwan back to China after beating Japan. This was supposed to happen when the claims of the war were settled, as they eventually were, by the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951. The only problem was that while Japan formally renounced sovereignty over Taiwan in the treaty, it was not given to either of the, by then, two claimants to be the real Chinese government. And so it has remained ever since.
What, therefore, should Retrocession Day mean to us? Maybe it should remind us that Taiwan has always been a pawn to be sacrificed for the sake of great power expediency, be it Imperial China giving it to Japan or the US tossing it to Chiang Kai-shek (
A strange interpretation of `ethical'
George Orwell's remark that hypocrisy was the besetting sin of the English has been amply demonstrated in the past few days by the the Blair government. We recall, even if Tony Blair or his foreign secretary Robin Cook have deemed it convenient to forget, that one of the hallmarks of the incoming Labour government was to have an "ethical" foreign policy. Even at the time, most British believed that ethics to the adulterous Cook was a county in southeast England. In the last few days we have seen the proselytizers of this "ethical foreign policy" toadying to Jiang Zemin (
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then
RSS