Mr Ma: Stop abetting China
Dear Mr Ma,
Twice, the people of Taiwan entrusted you with the highest office. That trust is gone — replaced by disbelief, and a deep sense of betrayal.
At the recent Straits Forum, they stripped you of your title, calling you simply “Mr Ma.” As a stage prop in a carefully scripted show, you accepted the humiliation. You also accepted their praise — not for having led Taiwan, but for parroting their lines: that both sides are Chinese, that unification is destiny, that Taiwan’s defenders are deluded or disloyal.
Let us speak plainly. You are not helping Taiwan — you are harming it. You are giving the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) what it craves most: legitimacy. Not just for its rule, but for its claim over us.
Every time you smile for their cameras, sit beneath their slogans or repeat their mantras, you reinforce a lie: that Taiwan belongs to them.
You make it harder for the world to see the truth. You embolden a regime that openly threatens war on our people. Whatever your intent, your actions aid one goal: to isolate Taiwan, weaken its resolve and normalize surrender.
That is not love for Taiwan. That is resentment.
As the son of mainland refugees, an educated bureaucrat and an elected president, you should know exactly what the CCP is: a regime built on violence, deception and betrayal.
You speak of roots. Then tell us: How do you face your ancestors when you kneel before the regime that stole their homeland?
We, the Taiwanese, keep asking: why have you become like this?
Some say it is ideology — that you have always seen yourself as Chinese first.
Some say it is legacy — that you now seek relevance where applause still comes, even if it is from those who wish to erase us.
Some say it is delusion — that you truly believe Beijing would treat Taiwan better than it treated Hong Kong.
Some say it is pride — that you cannot admit Taiwan rejected your vision and has chosen its own.
All these, in the light, dissolve like morning fog.
Being ethnically Chinese does not mean calling China your country — being its citizen, obeying its rulers, submitting to the CCP. One can be Chinese and proudly Taiwanese.
Legacy is not built through appeasement. History remembers not those who opened doors for invaders, but those who stood fighting them off.
Delusion is not reality. Hong Kong was promised autonomy — and crushed. We all saw it. To pretend Taiwan would be spared is not being hopeful. It is willful blindness.
And pride? What pride is worth our freedom, our dignity, our children’s future?
You speak of peace, but what you are fostering is not peace — it is surrender. The kind of peace that comes just before the prison door slams shut.
And yet — it is not too late, Mr Ma.
You could still speak the truth. You could still say what must be said: that being Chinese does not mean being ruled by the CCP.
You no longer hold the title — but you could still reclaim the moral authority that comes with it.
If only you would stop helping those who seek to destroy us. If only you could love Taiwan more than your ideology, your pride, your past or your need to be seen.
However, if you cannot help yourself — then go to China. Alone. Leave our young minds unpoisoned. If unification is your dream, then unify yourself: set your Taiwanese passport on fire, move to China and do not come back.
John Cheng
Taichung
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