Republic of Taiwan
As former president, Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is also a former commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Republic of China (ROC). On Monday, he traveled to China to pay respects at the tombs of his ancestors. While there, he has publicly acknowledged that the ROC is China and that the people living on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are Chinese. These words express his support for the unification of the two countries, and they also send a message to the international community that Taiwan is not opposed to unification. As such, his statement misleads other countries into underestimating Taiwan’s will to resist, which will have a negative impact on Taiwan’s alliance with other democratic nations.
As a professional soldier, after seeing this former ROC head of state belittle himself by traveling to an enemy country in the name of paying respects to his ancestors, I suddenly felt frustrated and embarrassed at the sight of the words “Republic of China” embroidered on my uniform. If the armed forces belong to the nation, does that not make me a soldier of China?
In an ever-changing international situation, we have no eternal allies, but one thing that will never change is Taiwan’s duty to hold the line of defense for world democracy. As Taiwanese, we are even more duty-bound to defend Taiwan. The government and the public should realize that the time has come for Taiwan to assert its subjective identity. It is time for us to dispense with the ROC and call our country by its proper name — the Republic of Taiwan. We must draw up a constitutional system that belongs to Taiwan. Only by so doing can we really say that the armed forces belong to the nation.
Fan Shu-ping
Taipei
Taiwanese are not Chinese
On Tuesday, I read in a Reuters report that “people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are ethnically Chinese and share the same ancestor, former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou said on Tuesday at the start of a historic visit to China that Taiwan’s ruling party has criticized.”
Spoken like a true politician. However, if Ma knew anything about human migration 75,000 years ago when the first Homo sapiens left Africa to spread north and eastward, right around the world, he should realize Taiwanese are not all ethnically Chinese. A simple DNA test would prove my point.
I know one Taiwanese personally, who was born in Taiwan, to parents claiming to be only Taiwanese, but the reality of genetics shows this person’s genetic map goes back 68 generations and includes 18.2 percent northern Han Chinese, 50 percent southern Han Chinese, 6.1 percent Japanese, 5.6 percent Chinese Dai, 4.6 percent Kihn Vietnamese, 6.2 percent German and Italian, 4.8 percent indigenous Philippine, 0.8 percent Peruvian, 0.2 pecent Sri Lankan, et cetera.
Interestingly, the Japanese DNA dates back almost 2,000 years and the Kihn Vietnamese dates as far back as 1470 and with 95 percent accuracy determined ancestry from Peru, dating back to between 1645 and 1705.
DNA does not know international borders, especially its origins. If Ma believes indigenous Taiwanese are Chinese, he is absolutely kowtowing to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and kissing his ring, because it just is not true.
If he believes the average Taiwanese are “ethnically Chinese” and “share the same ancestor,” he is playing a dangerous game and will condemn Taiwanese to re-education camps or worse. Communism will steal your life, stifle your freedom of speech, prevent your freedom of who you associate with, restrict your freedom of movement, and will force you to register and get permission to attend church.
If not for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) confusing the world with Republic of China versus People’s Republic of China, and its aspiration to return to govern communist China, I believe Taiwan would be recognized as a sovereign country by the West today.
Taiwan and the people of Taiwan are unique and are not “ethnically Chinese,” and “do not share the same ancestor.” Science should prevail over politics.
Robert Cassidy
Tasmania, Australia
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