Taiwanese pro-independence advocates yesterday said that the people of Taiwan have the right to self-determination and would achieve nationhood by throwing off what they called the “Chinese foreign regime,” at an event marking the 74th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of San Francisco.
The Taiwan Republic Office, together with other activist groups, organized the “Taiwan Nation” flag-raising ceremony on a cordoned-off road next to the Control Yuan and Legislative Yuan in Taipei. Following the ceremony, participants marched through the streets surrounding the Presidential Office Building.
Members of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP), the Taiwan Solidarity Union, the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan and other pro-independence organizations joined the rally, calling for the creation of a new Taiwanese nation and the rejection of the Republic of China framework, which they denounced as an “illegal occupation regime” unrecognized by most countries worldwide.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party
The event, held annually, commemorates the signing of the Treaty of San Francisco on Sept. 8, 1951, by 48 nations. The treaty settled key post-World War II issues and saw Japan renounce claims to territories in East Asia. However, it left Taiwan’s sovereignty unresolved, which organizers said provides the historical basis for Taiwanese independence.
“The people of Taiwan have the right to self-determination and to hold a referendum to decide the nation’s future, which is a right granted under arrangements made by the Allied powers after World War II,” Taiwan Republic Office founder Peter Wang (王獻極) said.
“Yet the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] regime, exiled from China, carried out an illegal military occupation that deprived the people of Taiwan of their right to self-determination,” he said.
“This year is also the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, when many new nations were established. Yet the people of Taiwan continue to face many obstacles in exercising our right to self-determination, which is a great challenge for us today,” he said. “For the past 21 years, we have organized this flag-raising ceremony to remind the world that the people of Taiwan aspire to build our own nation, as the KMT regime came from China and cannot represent us.”
TSP Chairman Wang Hsin-huan (王興煥) called on participants to show determination in the struggle for independence and the establishment of a Taiwanese nation.
“Let us all stand up as a Taiwanese,” he said.
Taiwan was under Japanese rule during World War II, and the postwar international treaties left it with what Wang described as an “unsettled political status.”
He rejected the KMT’s narrative of “Taiwan retrocession,” saying that Taiwan’s future should be decided through a referendum and the democratic process.
Such a course is the best way to counter China’s unfounded territorial claims, Wang said.
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