American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) spokesperson Sheila Paskman yesterday said a US government document from 1904 showed that Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and that Sun had been issued a document showing that he was a US citizen — claims the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) quickly denied.
During an interview with the Central News Agency, Paskman said that to celebrate the centenary of the ROC this year, the AIT had planned a special exhibition with Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in conjunction with US celebrations of its Independence Day.
In the process, she said, a document from 1904 was unearthed in the US National Archives stating that the US had given Sun legal status as a US citizen.
The document will be on display at the “Special Exhibition of Sun Yat-sen and the US” on July 4, Paskman said, adding that whether Sun’s birth certificate which shows he was born in Honolulu would be included was under negotiation.
Paskman said that while looking for information on Sun, she came across data showing Sun had once attended Oahu College, now called Punahou School, of which US President Barack Obama is an alumnus.
Most history textbooks state that Sun was born on Nov. 12, 1866, in Cuiheng Village, Xiangshan County, Guangdong Province, China.
Commenting on the revelation yesterday, Shao Ming-huang (邵銘煌), director of the KMT’s -department of history, said that even if the US had legal documents showing Sun was a US citizen, it would not change the fact that Sun was born in Guangdong.
Shao said 1904 was a decade after Sun founded the Hsing Chung Hui, or the Revive China Society, and launched his revolution to overthrow the Qing Dynasty.
The revolution ran into difficulties and Sun was faced with the prospect of being arrested in China, Shao said.
With the US Chinese Exclusion Act severely limiting Chinese immigration, Sun had difficulty entering the US and was even detained by US authorities at one point, Shao said.
Sun’s detention prompted an overseas Chinese to say that if Sun wanted to promote a Chinese -revolution on US soil, it would be best if he had US citizenship, Shao said.
Sun’s friends in San Francisco set in motion plans for him to obtain US citizenship by faking a birth certificate showing that he was born in Honolulu, Shao said.
Sun asked for a birth certificate from Hawaii because he had lived and studied there in his early teens, Shao said, adding that the date on the birth certificate — Nov. 24, 1870 — was chosen to reflect the founding date of the Hsing Chung Hui to establish a connection with his revolutionary activities.
“It was a makeshift plan for the good of the revolution and it does not change where Sun was born,” Shao said.
TRANSLATED BY JAKE CHUNG, STAFF WRITER
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS