Two small Taiwanese groups at the far ends of the debate over relations with Beijing marked the National Day of the People’s Republic of China yesterday with flag raisings and flag burnings — opposite responses at a time of rising tension over the Taiwan Strait.
Oct. 1 marks the day that Mao Zedong (毛澤東) proclaimed the People’s Republic of China in 1949, with the defeated Republic of China government fleeing to Taiwan at the end of that year, where — after democratic reforms — it remains to this day, neither recognizing the other.
China’s national day is not officially marked in any way in Taiwan, which celebrates its National Day, the founding of the Republic of China, on Oct. 10.
Photo: Ko Yu-hao, Taipei Times
However, some small groups in Taiwan do mark China’s national day, with either pride at being Chinese or fury at Beijing’s threats against Taiwan, especially after China stepped up war games near Taiwan in August.
In a rural part of Tainan, the Taiwan People’s Communist Party gathered about 200 people, mostly older people, to sing China’s national anthem and raise the country’s flag on what the party referred to in a statement as “a sacred part of China’s territory.”
Lin Te-wang (林德旺), the chairman of the fringe party, which has no elected officials, said that China is not a threat, despite August’s large-scale military activities, which were condemned by all of Taiwan’s mainstream parties.
Photo: Reuters
“Military exercises are good for Taiwan because they show the majesty of China’s military force internationally,” Lin, 67, said.
At the other end of the spectrum, the pro-independence Taiwan Statebuilding Party burned a Chinese flag yesterday on a boat off Taiwan’s south coast, in an area of sea where China staged its August drills, shouting slogans such as “protect Taiwan to the death.”
Party Chairman Chen Yi-chi (陳奕齊), while on the boat in the Taiwan Strait, said that burning the flag was not provocative.
“How can burning the flag be extreme? If you want to show your resistance to defending Taiwan now, if burning the flag is extreme, what will you do when the artillery fire comes?” Chen said.
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