During a recent meeting with foreign guests, President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen also said the referendums are a universal value, a basic human right and a God-given right that cannot be deprived or restricted.
Chen's argument is not empty talk. After all, as early as 1895 China wanted to stop Japan from taking over Taiwan when Li Hongzhang (
China was in fact the first country to come up with the idea of following the precedent set by Western countries and holding a referendum in Taiwan without any legal basis in order to resist the invading Japanese regime. If China could do it back then, why is it now trying to stop a referendum in Taiwan by way of threats?
Japan was successful in its Meiji reformation program and became an Eastern power, and it also gained tacit support from some powerful nations for its intent to annex Taiwan. China lost the Sino-Japanese war in 1895 and Li was unable to resist Japanese pressure. This eventually led to the Shimonoseki Treaty. The Qing court was shocked by the news.
According to a book on Taiwan's history by Chi Chia-lin (
Zhang immediately issued an order to Taiwan's governer Tang Jingsong (
However, because China and Japan already exchanged treaty documents in Shandong Province, China's ceding Taiwan to Japan was irreversible. The idea of a referendum in Taiwan died before it was born. After gaining an understanding with the Chinese government, the authorities in Taiwan started to seek independence and established the short-lived Taiwan Republic.
China wanted to use a referendum to give voice to the Taiwanese people's objection to Japanese rule, thereby seeking international sympathy and garnering the power of international justice. Unfortunately, international justice was no match for the international law of the jungle. Japan still took over Taiwan by force.
Today, the people of Taiwan want to hold referendums and yet they have come under vicious accusations and unreasonable suppression from Beijing. What inspiration can people gain from the past?
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