Real Taiwan in new year
Last year ended with mixed feelings of shock, suffering and an attitude of resistance. A 63-story hotel in Dubai caught fire during New Year’s celebrations and shocked the world. The year ended in misery for those who suffered from natural disasters, terror attacks and accidents.
We all hope that this year we will overcome challenges.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) said he appreciated his meeting with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Nov. 7 in Singapore, where they made made a handshake between the leaders of the Republic of China (ROC) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) a reality.
Ma described the meeting as a bridge of peace, a bridge not only across the Taiwan Strait, but one that also crosses the barricades of history.
In his New Year’s message, Ma urged the next president to cherish the accomplishments of his administration and not be ungrateful of his efforts.
He said: “Now, the 1992 consensus is the cross-strait consensus. I hope the cross-strait policies of the next administration will continue in the right direction, following the pragmatic and effective policies that we have implemented in the past seven years.”
However, it sounds like he was talking to himself.
While international leaders hope for world peace and safety, Chinese leaders only dream to force Taiwan into submission. Ma and Xi shook hands to end the Chinese family feud, but Beijing is plotting to annex Taiwan.
On the first day of this year, People First Party presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) said he wants to safeguard the existence of the ROC.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) said he hopes everyone blesses the ROC.
Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said she hopes there would be a new president and a new legislature so that Taiwan can change.
Taiwan does need a change. It has been 70 years since the beginning of military occupation of Taiwan by the KMT/ROC after World War II ended; 120 years since Japan signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895; and 474 years since since Portuguese sailors named the nation Ilha Formosa in 1542.
Since that time, Taiwan has been used by the Netherlands, Spain, Koxinga, the Qing Dynasty, Japan and the ROC as a colony or a military base. Taiwanese were treated as second-class people, being subjected to massacres, White Terror and Martial Law era practices, double standards, judicial persecution, genocide and ethnic cleansing. No one was committed to transform Taiwan into a nation. No wonder Taiwan is still the only international political orphan.
On Sept. 8, 1951, when Japan renounced all right, title and claim to Taiwan, the Pescadores, the Spratlys (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) and the Paracels (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), by signing the San Francisco Peace Treaty, there were about 60 nations in the world, now there are 193 members recognized by the UN.
All of them have gone through a life-and-death struggle to have their claims to sovereignty recognized by the international community. Unfortunately, Taiwanese are naive enough to believe that Taiwan is an independent, sovereign nation named the ROC. They ignore UN Resolution 2758, which expelled the ROC, replacing it with the PRC on Oct. 25, 1971. The ROC does not have any national dignity.
It is funny that Ma, Chu and Soong in unison warn Tsai that if she rejects the so-called “1992 consensus” and is elected as the next president, then Taiwan would risk severing diplomatic ties with 18 nations. Who cares about diplomatic relations with the fake nation of the ROC? It is nothing but an illusion.
If you accept Taiwan as your home — not a stepping stone for a counterattack — please join hands to stop those who are attempting to kidnap Taiwan and surrender it to China or “one China.”
In the new year, I hope Taiwan has a new life. One Taiwan, but not “one China.” Stop betraying Taiwan. Let us join hands to walk out of the ages of colonialism and slavery. Let us get out of the political purgatory of the ROC. Taiwanese should be the masters of Taiwan. Let us light up Taiwan — it is not part of China.
John Hsieh
Hayward, California
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