China has been acting strangely lately in terms of developing religious ties with Taiwan.
Whenever a country acts against its staunch beliefs, we must be alert and wonder whether its government is up to something.
Over the past few years, China has zealously held annual celebrations for divinities that are mostly worshipped by Taiwanese.
Beijing has launched religious pilgrimages with the goal of attracting Taiwanese worshipers to visit shrines in China. China's motivation for such religious practices is multifaceted.
On the one hand, attracting Taiwanese tourists means bringing in cash.
On the other hand, this sort of religious exchange between average people in Taiwan and China is laced with political incentive.
China is trying to forge a religious bond it can use to argue that China and Taiwan are one and must be unified as a nation.
China's enthusiastic support of religious activities runs counter to Communism. Since its establishment in 1949, the People's Republic of China has consistently trampled on freedom of religion.
It has upheld the belief that religion is "the opium of the masses," and to this day only allows religion in a strictly state-controlled form and ruthlessly cracks down on religious groups.
While China continues to oppress the right to personal religious beliefs, it is also suddenly encouraging celebrations of Matsu, the God of Medicine and, more recently, the Birth-Registry Lady.
It is clear that this sudden change must benefit them and it would seem to be specifically targeted at making an argument for unification with Taiwan. The divinities on the state-sponsored list happen to be highly respected among Taiwanese.
Regardless of religious similarities between China and Taiwan, nationality and religious beliefs are not the same thing.
Before China continues wasting its time on manipulating religious issues for political purposes, China might consider one hard fact; Muslims who travel abroad to make the pilgrimage to Mecca don't think that makes them Saudi Arabians.
Cheng Yong-rui
Tamsui, Taipei County
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not