Let Taiwanese be happy
If Taiwanese are happy, leave them alone and let them be happy (“Happy index not a true reflection,” Sept. 2, page 8).
It does not seem possible, economically or politically, that Taiwanese are happier than Japanese and South Koreans. One thing for sure, and pertinent, is that Taiwanese are happier than Chinese.
A good, smart government always tries its best to make its people happy. Unfortunately, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has done many things against the public’s will.
Here are some examples: The so-called “one China” policy is trying to convert Taiwanese into Chinese; the service trade agreement with China will allow Chinese to take over local jobs; the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has many illegal party assets to fund elections; corruption cases are treated differently according to political affiliation; the government acts like an enemy, infringing on property and human rights; the electromagnetic wave irradiation of farmlands is a health hazard for farmers; and finally, Ma seldom keeps his campaign promises and has failed to make Taiwan a “normal” country.
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
Fighting for citizenship
Article 15 (1) of the Universal Human Rights Declaration says everyone has the right to a nationality. What is the nationality of people from Taiwan?
A Taiwanese student at Oslo University, Lu Yu-ta (呂昱達), ached at being registered as a citizen of the People’s Republic of China. His complaints were ignored by the Norwegian police and immigration authorities.
Lu became frustrated and said: “Although we are granted visa-free access to 140 countries, it is sad that we must suffer through not being recognized as citizens of an independent country.”
Lu has issued a wake-up call for all Taiwanese to face their citizenship.
Citizenship awareness is closely tied to the nation’s future. What does the younger generation dream of? Everyone, like Lu, dreams of being a citizen of a nation called Taiwan with the pride of UN membership. Unfortunately, people have been under the KMT’s brainwashing program for 68 years, which says the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent sovereign state and Taiwan is a province of its territory. The reality is that the ROC is not an independent country, but an exiled government without international recognition.
In the e-generation, people can easily verify historical records. There is no international treaty or legal document declaring that sovereignty over Taiwan has been transferred from Japan to the ROC. President Ma said Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) did ask for Taiwan’s sovereignty in the Cairo declaration and under the Taipei treaty, Japan transfered Taiwan sovereignty to the ROC in 1952.
However, the Cairo declaration was only a news release. Japan renounced all rights, titles and claims to Formosa and the Pescadores on Sept. 8, 1951 in the San Francisco Peace Treaty.
The US military government was named as the principal occupying power. There was no resolution passed by the ROC’s National Assembly or the Legislative Yuan to record Taiwan as annexed territory. There is no proof that the ROC has sovereignty over Taiwan. It is no wonder the international community refer to the ROC as Chinese Taipei; the Chinese exiled government in Taipei.
Why is the nation referred to as Chinese Taipei and not Formosa or Taiwan? That is the puzzle the younger generation needs to solve. They have been educated as Chinese, but the real world tells them they are Formosan.
Sixty-two years ago, on Sept. 5, 1951, three days before the signing of the San Francisco treaty, then-US secretary of state John Foster Dulles said “the foundation for this peace was laid by the many who gave up their lives in faith that the very magnitude of their sacrifice would compel those who survived to find and take the way to peace.”
World War II is over everywhere except in Taiwan. Taiwanese are entitled to self-determination. Hopefully, activist group Citizen 1985 will continue to declare “injustice,” “anger” and “we want truth” to help Lu fight for his nationality claim and to finally define Taiwan’s status.
John Hsieh
Hayward, California
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