Taiwan’s fate has never been, and will never be, determined by the Taiwanese themselves, former premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) told a seminar yesterday celebrating the 70th anniversary of Japan’s World War II surrender.
The seminar, organized by the New Chinese Children’s Association, celebrated “the anniversary of victory in the anti-Japanese war.”
According to the association’s Web site, the event was aimed at helping young people learn about the history of the Republic of China’s (ROC) anti-Japanese war, expose the recent “bandit ambition” of Japanese militarists and “debunk the lies fabricated by the Japanese bandits’ slaves who overstayed in Taiwan (滯臺倭奴) and who have distorted the real history.”
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Hau had been invited to give the opening speech, and in it he urged young Taiwanese to learn the “real history.”
It was too bad that while there is now a 228 Memorial Day and 228 Peace Memorial Park, “Retrocession Day” is no longer a holiday in Taiwan and there is no “retrocession park,” said the 96-year-old retired general, who had also served as chief of the general staff and minister of national defense.
Retrocession Day used to be celebrated on Oct. 25 to mark Japan’s Oct. 25, 1945, surrender of Taiwan after 50 years of Japanese rule.
Hau talked about a recent trip to China, where he said he “braved” Chinese Communist Party officials by insisting that it was former president Chang Kai-shek (蔣介石) who led China to victory in the war.
He visited China in July to take part in commemorations of the 77th anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which is considered the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Hau yesterday discussed the idea that Taiwanese are the master of their own fate.
“The notion that Taiwan’s future is to be decided by Taiwanese themselves, proposed by the Democratic Progressive Party, while [justifiable] from the perspective of democracy, runs afoul of practical politics,” Hau said.
“Taiwan’s future has never been decided by Taiwan itself,” he said. “When the Qing [Dynasty] ceded Taiwan to Japan [in 1895], was it up to Taiwanese? When Taiwan was restored [to the ROC in 1945], was it an outcome of Taiwan’s own decision?”
Hau said he was not opposed to the idea, but “it was not possible in the past, is not possible now and will not be possible in the future.”
“Taiwan’s future is the Republic of China’s future, and the ROC’s future ought to be decided by all Chinese people (中國人), the Zhonghua minzu [Chinese ethnic group, 中華民族],” he said.
Underlining the geopolitical predicament Taiwan faces in a world shaped by great powers, Hau said the only reasonable road is to identify with the Zhonghua minzu, insist on the legitimacy and authority of the ROC Constitution and cling to the “1992 consensus,” according to which both the ROC and the People’s Republic of China agree that there is only one China.
“Taiwanese independence is a dead end,” he said.
“Today’s Taiwan would not exist if it was not for the Republic of China’s success in the anti-Japanese war. The happiness and prosperity enjoyed by Taiwanese would not have been possible without the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] and its implementation of the Three Principles of the People,” he said.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
RSS