We first met you when you came to the Netherlands in 1988. It was only a couple of years after you had been released from prison. You had gone through indescribable pain and anguish after the loss of your mother and twin daughters, Ting-chun (亭均) and Liang-chun (亮均) on Feb. 28, 1980.
Thirty-four years later it is still unimaginable that a cruel and repressive Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime could allow that to happen, and still get away with it, even to this day.
However, your visit in 1988 expressed hope: You smiled and we enjoyed visiting various places in the Netherlands and Belgium. We looked at the future with optimism. Martial law had been lifted in 1987, and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had been established the year before. You would soon go back to Taiwan, later become the chairman of the DPP and lead it to victory in the election of 2000.
In the many years since then you showed your determination to do what is right for Taiwan and you have always been a man of principle. We greatly admire you for what you have done for Taiwan. It means a great deal to know that there are people with ideas and ideals for which they stand.
In the present debate about the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant we fully agree with you that it is time for the government and the people of Taiwan to say “no” to the construction and operation of a nuclear power plant so close to a major metropolitan area. To make this happen in a democratic fashion it is essential that the referendum law is changed and the 50 percent “birdcage” clause be dropped.
Your fast has galvanized tens of thousands of people into action and there is now an incredible amount of momentum in the campaign for closure of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and establishing a nuclear-free Taiwan. Through your actions, the majority of the public now see clearly that it is high time for Taiwan to change course and shift to alternative energy sources, as well as work on energy conservation.
What we really want to say is that you have achieved your objectives and that we don’t want to lose you. You have given us inspiration and hope and Taiwanese need you by their side in further battles for Taiwan and its future as a free and democratic nation. As your daughter Judy wrote so movingly in her letter on Easter Sunday 2014: “Please keep on striving for your cause and stay in our lives.”
All the efforts by you and many other courageous people in Taiwan, young and old, are now turning into a stream, and the stream is turning into a tide of freedom and democracy that can never be turned back.
Gerrit and Mei-chin van der Wees are editors of Taiwan Communique, a publication based in Washington.
US President Donald Trump has gotten off to a head-spinning start in his foreign policy. He has pressured Denmark to cede Greenland to the United States, threatened to take over the Panama Canal, urged Canada to become the 51st US state, unilaterally renamed the Gulf of Mexico to “the Gulf of America” and announced plans for the United States to annex and administer Gaza. He has imposed and then suspended 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico for their roles in the flow of fentanyl into the United States, while at the same time increasing tariffs on China by 10
As an American living in Taiwan, I have to confess how impressed I have been over the years by the Chinese Communist Party’s wholehearted embrace of high-speed rail and electric vehicles, and this at a time when my own democratic country has chosen a leader openly committed to doing everything in his power to put obstacles in the way of sustainable energy across the board — and democracy to boot. It really does make me wonder: “Are those of us right who hold that democracy is the right way to go?” Has Taiwan made the wrong choice? Many in China obviously
US President Donald Trump last week announced plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on eight countries. As Taiwan, a key hub for semiconductor manufacturing, is among them, the policy would significantly affect the country. In response, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) dispatched two officials to the US for negotiations, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC) board of directors convened its first-ever meeting in the US. Those developments highlight how the US’ unstable trade policies are posing a growing threat to Taiwan. Can the US truly gain an advantage in chip manufacturing by reversing trade liberalization? Is it realistic to
About 6.1 million couples tied the knot last year, down from 7.28 million in 2023 — a drop of more than 20 percent, data from the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs showed. That is more serious than the precipitous drop of 12.2 percent in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the saying goes, a single leaf reveals an entire autumn. The decline in marriages reveals problems in China’s economic development, painting a dismal picture of the nation’s future. A giant question mark hangs over economic data that Beijing releases due to a lack of clarity, freedom of the press
RSS