Thousands of people attended a rally yesterday afternoon in Taipei to voice their opposition to the so-called “1992 consensus” and express their concern over Taiwan’s sovereignty under President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
Thousands of people gathered in front of the Presidential Office to mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty as part of the rally, which was organized by the Taiwan Nation Alliance.
The aim of the parade was to say to both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the international community that Taiwan does not belong to China, organizers said.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Japan signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty with 48 UN member countries in a meeting on Sept. 8, 1951. In the treaty, Japan declared that it would relinquish its claims to Taiwan, Penghu and all other offshore islands.
Although the treaty has weight in international law, it does not say to which party Japan ceded Taiwan and Penghu, alliance spokesperson Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文) said, adding that this means Taiwan is not part of China and that Taiwanese have the right to establish their own country.
The “1992 consensus” never existed, Yao said, adding that by accepting a consensus on the basis of “one China,” Ma had committed treason because he claimed that Taiwan’s sovereignty belongs to another country.
The parade started in front of Wanhua (萬華) Train Station at 2:28pm, in commemoration of the 228 Massacre in 1947, and ended on Ketagalan Boulevard.
Several political parties, including the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and the Taiwan Nationalist Party, as well as many pro-independence groups, took part.
During the parade the crowd chanted slogans: “Dump Ma, protect Taiwan,” “Taiwan Consensus: ‘One China, One Taiwan’” and “Protect sovereignty, safeguard peace,” with protestors carrying various handmade signs and placards, some of which read “anti--annexation” and “China: hands off Taiwan.”
The parade was held to remind the international community that the San Francisco Peace Treaty gave Taiwanese the status of “free men” who, like people of other colonies around the world after World War II, were given the right to establish their own country, TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said.
Taiwan’s sovereignty belongs to no one else — neither to the Republic of China nor the People’s Republic of China. It belongs only to Taiwanese, he said.
It is a fact that Taiwan’s status remains undetermined, because the “Taiwan problem” after World War II was handled differently from that of Korea and Okinawa, said Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深), an associate research fellow in the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica.
After Japan ceded its right to Taiwan and Penghu, Taiwanese never exercised their right to self-determination and this was because of the occupation by KMT military forces, Taiwan Association of University Professors president Chang Yen-hsien (張炎憲) said, adding that if the KMT won the presidential election next year, Taiwan’s status risked being be further jeopardized.
“Nobody can deny the fact that Taiwan is a sovereign country,” DPP Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) told reporters before the parade.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS