Taiwan Youth Anti-Communist Corps (TYAC) cofounder and political commentator Paul Lin (林保華), a frequent Taipei Times contributor, presented his autobiography at a book launch in Taipei that was attended by a number of pan-green supporters, including Democratic Progressive Party Chairman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰).
The book, titled Hybrid: Memoir of Lin Bao-hua (我的雜種人生：林保華回憶錄), tells the life story of 81-year-old Lin, who was born in China and raised in Indonesia. He studied and taught Chinese Communist Party (CCP) history at universities in China, and then left for Hong Kong, where he became a political commentator who often criticized the CCP.
Lin left Hong Kong just before it was returned to China in 1997, and lived in the US for nine years, before settling in Taiwan with his wife, TYAC executive director Yang Yueh-ching (楊月清).
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Citing the old saying: “The scholar dies for his bosom friend” (士為知己者死), Lin said he began writing the book five years ago.
Many events have happened in the past five years, so while he had planned to devote himself “to protect Taiwan,” he might now choose to fight for Hong Kong, Lin said.
He was referring to the protests in Hong Kong that began over a now-suspended extradition bill, but have extended to demands for greater democracy and the resignation of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥).
Turing to Taiwanese politics, Lin said he understands if the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) deceives Taiwanese, but he cannot stand it when groups claiming to be pro-localization lie to the people while seeking to gain personally, “which is the biggest obstruction to Taiwan becoming a country.”
“There is no issue of Taiwanese independence, because Taiwan is already an independent country,” Chinese human rights lawyer Teng Biao (滕彪) said at the event. “There is only one issue, which is how [Taiwan is] to avoid China’s infiltration.”
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