Ko’s comments not crazy
On Jan. 20, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was interviewed by Foreign Policy magazine. He said he was a servant of the people; not a professional politician — a professional trauma surgeon, but he had been examined as if he were the president.
However, he has done a very good job speaking up for Taiwanese. Of course his answers were totally unacceptable to China and the pan-blue camp, and not even the pan-green camp liked them.
On the issue of Asia and colonization, Ko said: “For the [world’s] four Chinese-speaking regions — Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and mainland China — the longer the colonization, the more advanced a place is. It is rather embarrassing. Singapore is better than Hong Kong; Hong Kong is better than Taiwan; Taiwan is better than the mainland. I’m speaking in terms of culture.”
The pro-Beijing Global Times criticized Ko’s comments in an editorial, calling him “crazed” for “not putting his pro-independence sentiments in check.”
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) said: “No country in the world would like to be colonized.”
Ko is not crazed, he simply pointed out what Taiwan is today. Since Portuguese sailors called Taiwan “Formosa” in 1544, it has been occupied and ruled by Holland, Spain, Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), better known in the West as Koxinga, the Qing Dynasty, Japan and the exiled Republic of China (ROC) government. Which dynasty was built by Taiwanese?
Ko just expressed the truth: Taiwanese have never been their own bosses and Taiwan has never been independent. It is still ruled by an outsider government.
No one would like to be colonized, but Taiwan has been constantly colonized. Why did Taiwan’s political leaders not tell the truth, instead of saying Taiwan is the ROC and the ROC is Taiwan? No, the ROC is China and Taiwan is a colony of the ROC.
So, when answering the question of colonization, Ko said that it was cultural, not political, because Taiwan has suffered the longest colonization and is still in political purgatory.
On the issue of cross-strait relations, Ko asked: “What is the ‘one China’ principle?”
It is a good question, because he has the knowledge to challenge the concept. The US does not talk about “one US,” nor are there calls for “one Japan,” “one France” or “one Germany.” Only the Chinese insist on “one China.”
The “one China” policy was first mentioned in the Shanghai Communique on Feb. 28, 1972. It was a term created by then-US national security advisor Henry Kissinger based on the feud between Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正). Kissinger figured it would take a while for the ROC and China to merge into “one China.”
There are at least three different versions of the “one China” policy. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) says it represents China, including Mongolia. The Chinese Communist Party claims it is representing all China, including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.
The US says the ROC and China will eventually be unified, but Taiwan is excluded. That is why the US’ Taiwan policy is firmly based on the Three Communiques and its Taiwan Relations Act.
Before the Earth was identified as spherical, Pythagoras was called an idiot in Greece. The wisest Chinese strategist Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮) said heaven was a dome and the land was flat as a chess board.
Is Ko crazed? No. He is sharp, smart, frank, straight-forward and knowledgeable.
John Hsieh
Hayward, California
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