It was that time of year again, a time of wounds unhealed, a time of unhealed wounds reopening.
It was the 68th anniversary of the 228 Incident. It will then be the 69th, the 70th, etc. The count will just keep piling up if the truth stays hidden and no closure is brought about.
No single phrase does more to describe the suffering Taiwanese have endured than the following epigram widely circulated among Taiwanese communities:
“America dropped two atomic bombs in Japan, but one Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) in Taiwan. Which option do you prefer?”
With the wisdom of US General Douglas Macarthur and the collective will of its people, Japan quickly recovered and is now a key US ally in the Western Pacific.
However, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was hesitant accepting an olive branch from President Ma Ying-Jeou (馬英九) in the form of an attempted, but failed, handshake during a memorial ceremony on Feb. 28.
The gulf dividing ethnic Taiwanese and Mainlanders is to this day still perceptible. Plenty of historical legal papers and declassified US documents attest to how the divide came about: Unequivocal resentment of the pain, hurt and injustice Taiwanese sustained at the hands of the brutal Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration.
On one hand, Taiwanese were then too naive to be on guard against an undisciplined, uncivilized Chinese military. On the other hand, the US military, either misguided or for political expedience amid the beginning of the Cold War, ignored Chiang’s corrupt nature. Both sealed Taiwanese fate to a long stretch of authoritarian oppression with bloody consequences. Soon it will be 70 years since the 228 Incident. It is too long to let the wound bleed any longer.
The US must end the unfinished business that has cost Taiwanese uncountable suffering. Taiwanese refuse to live in limbo. Taiwanese are not seeking revenge, but justice. A free and peaceful Taiwan serves the best interests of all countries involved.
On April 3 last year and Feb. 4 this year, rays of hope started flickering. In testimony to the US Congress, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Daniel Russel said: “Strong United States support for Taiwan autonomy also helps give our friends in Taiwan the confidence to strengthen their cross-strait relations.” (www.state.gov/p/eap/rls/rm/2014/04/224350.htm).
He also pledged: “Our continued efforts to help ensure that Taiwan can preserve its autonomy and manage its defense.” (fpc.state.gov/237218.htm).
The US should grant Taiwanese the following: autonomy devoid of the falsehood of Republic of China (ROC); the right to set up an autonomous governing body replacing the existing exiled ROC; the right to occupy the current property of Taiwan Provincial Government in Taichung; and the right to bear passports issued by the new autonomous government.
In addition, the US should also ban the display of the so-called “ROC flag” in Taiwan and anywhere else, because it is a symbol of oppression,
As a victor in World War II and still the legal guardian of Taiwan, the US must work with Taiwanese — who want to be free.
Kengchi Goah is a senior research fellow at the Taiwan Public Policy Council in the US.
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
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS