According to a recent nationwide poll, 45 percent of Taiwan's people support Lien Chan's visit to China while 42.5 percent are against it.
The poll result is amazing in the current situation in Taiwan and around the world. It must be the effect of Stockholm Syndrome.
On Aug. 23, 1973, two machine-gun toting criminals entered a bank in Stockholm, Sweden. The two bank robbers held four hostages, three women and one man, for the next 131 hours. The hostages had dynamite strapped to them and were held in a bank vault until they were rescued on Aug. 28.
After their rescue, the hostages exhibited a shocking attitude notwithstanding that they were threatened and abused and feared for their lives for more than five days. In their media interviews, the hostages said they had begun to feel their captors were actually protecting them from the police. One of the female hostages later became engaged to one of the criminals and another started a legal-defense fund to help their captors pay their lawyers. Clearly, the hostages had "bonded" emotionally with their captors. This emotional "bonding" with captors is known as "Stockholm Syndrome" in psychology.
Since 1949 until its defeat in the 2000 election, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has kidnaped, tortured and murdered hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese. After half a century of captivity and after becoming a free nation, the Taiwanese are still bonding emotionally with their former captor, the KMT.
The Taiwanese people are confused and need help to heal from the Stockholm Syndrome.
Ken Huang
Memphis, Tennessee
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