Independence advocates yesterday at a rally called on government leaders to “rectify” the nation’s official name as “Taiwan” as they denounced Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu’s (吳釗燮) remark of “not seeking formal ties with the US” during a media interview.
Organized by Taiwan Republic Office director Chilly Chen (陳峻涵), the advocates chanted slogans, such as “Taiwan is not the Republic of China [ROC],” and held a banner that read: “If the nation’s title is not corrected as ‘Taiwan,’ how can it fully establish diplomatic relations with the US?” as they gathered outside Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) headquarters in Taipei at noon.
Chen said that the vast majority of people identify as Taiwanese, not Chinese, and prefer “Taiwan” as the nation’s official name, instead of the “ROC,” which he said was a military-political regime of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that fled China to illegally occupy Taiwan by force after losing the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Photo: Jason Pan, Taipei Times
Chen cited the US’ Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 and the Taiwan Travels Act that was signed into law by US President Donald Trump last year as official documents that refer to the nation as “Taiwan.”
“Also, US Representative Tom Tiffany has introduced legislation calling for US to scrap the outdated ‘one China’ policy and resume formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan,” he said.
These examples show that Taiwan and the US have achieved the highest level of diplomatic relations, bilateral trade and business investment, as well as defense cooperation, in their history, Chen said, discounting the US’ relations with the nation prior to 1979 for involving the KMT’s ROC regime, not Taiwan.
“The US has undertaken military maneuvers to counter China’s hostile intrusion into Taiwan’s maritime and air space to help defend Taiwan and Asia-Pacific countries from Beijing’s warmongering aggression,” Chen said.
Sim Kientek, who heads the Provisional Government of Formosa organization, said that Taiwan does not belong to the ROC, while the ROC Constitution and its laws have no legitimacy and no jurisdiction over Taiwanese.
“Therefore it is long overdue to rectify nation’s name as ‘Taiwan.’ Only by doing so can we establish full normal diplomatic ties with the US and other countries,” Sim said.
“We request President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and the DPP leadership to declare to the world that we are the ‘Taiwan’ nation, and will have no claims to territories under China’s governance, and will draft a new constitution to reflect the current political reality,” Sim said at the rally.
Sim and Chen also said that Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) has been using the title “Taiwan Ambassador to the US” and Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) referred to himself as “Taiwan Ambassador to Japan” as did Representative to Germany Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) who referred to himself as “Taiwan Ambassador to Germany.”
“They seem to have tacit approval from their respective host countries, so our government is getting ready to establish full diplomatic ties and also boost trade with these countries,” Chen said.
“We condemn Wu for his statement that Taiwan is not seeking full diplomatic relations with US at this moment during an interview with Washington-based National Public Radio,” he said.
“We vigorously protest Wu’s statements, as it is contrary to the wishes of Taiwanese,” Chen added. “We want to know if Wu is receiving instructions from President Tsai, or was he under political pressure to say so to hide some sensitive issues? Wu must fully explain this to the public.”
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