Standing up for Taiwan
The three presidential candidates, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫), Democratic Progressive Party candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and People First Party (PFP) candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜), took part in the third and last of their TV policy presentations on Thursday last week.
The first presenter, Chu, said that in about one week the next president of the Republic of China (ROC) is going to be elected and asked voters to choose the right candidate because the life or death of the ROC hinges on their choice.
Tsai went second, and said she would do her best for the nation — without using a specific name — but then said she would work for a better future for Taiwan.
Soong gave the third presentation, and said that he is Taiwanese and Chinese, and is the only candidate with the experience necessary to run Taiwan’s affairs — he did not mention the ROC.
Hundreds of international political monitors, academics and reporters are in Taiwan to observe the presidential and legislative elections. How confusing these elections must be to the international community — is the electorate choosing the president of Taiwan or of the ROC?
What is the ROC? Is it an independent nation with sovereignty recognized by the international community?
In 1912 the ROC was established as an independent sovereign country, but after having lost the Chinese Civil War to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949, it fled to Taiwan and set up camp as an exiled government. It is not recognized by the international community as a sovereign nation — the US now describes it as the governing authority of Taiwan.
Since its arrival, the KMT has ruled Taiwan by martial law, terror, tricks, double standards, injustice and abuse of taxpayers’ money to favor their supporters. It has never viewed Taiwan as a home, but as a money tree and a stepping stone to launch counterattacks on the CCP with an eye on unification with China.
During the election campaign, Chu repeatedly asked voters to vote for the ROC, support the ROC, defend the ROC and protect the ROC. However, when Chu met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) he made no mention of the ROC and instead advocated “one China.” For Chu, his campaign slogan of “one Taiwan” is nothing but a scapegoat offering to China. Therefore, the ROC is a fake name used by the KMT to cheat and threaten Taiwanese.
The same type of trick is being played by Soong when he asks voters to safeguard the existence of the ROC, saying it is the most important common denominator of Taiwanese.
Today, more than 90 percent of the nation’s residents identify as Taiwanese and they are hungry to have their nation recognized as a member of the international community. It is hard for us to keep lying to our children and grandchildren, by saying that elections are held to select the president of the ROC, which is an independent nation — but is still part of “one China” and unrecognized by the world. Young people are not idiots, as the Sunflower movement showed.
Taiwanese have suffered so much torture, discrimination, intimidation, coercion, and have even been massacred by the KMT — a foreign power. The party came to Taiwan as a political refugee, but took over the reins of power and accumulated billions of dollars in assets. They tortured Hung Chung-chu (洪仲丘) to death, illegally expropriated land in Dapu (大埔), forced evictions and allowed Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團) to get away with selling tainted cooking oil.
Enough is enough. Thousands of Taiwanese living overseas are on their way home to vote in the presidential and legislative elections on Saturday. It is time for Taiwanese to fight for their rights if they want to become their own masters, join the international community and enjoy equal opportunities and social benefits, fair taxes and the due process of law and justice.
Rome was not built in a day and a 1,000km journey always begins with one step. There is a long way to go before Taiwan is finally recognized by the international community as a nation, but the first step is to end the military occupation by the ROC.
The future is in our hands, and vision and wisdom is needed to make the right judgement. Let us join hands and write a new page in Taiwan’s history, vote out the foreign power — and those other parties who speak for “one China”— and show the world that an absolute majority of voters wants to be ruled by the president of Taiwan, not of “one China.”
John Hsieh
Hayward, California
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