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
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
RSS