Colonization is associated with progress in the Chinese-speaking world, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said in an interview published on Thursday on the Foreign Policy magazine Web site.
“For the [world’s] four Chinese-speaking regions — Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Mainland China — the longer the colonization, the more advanced a place is,” Ko said, adding that it was “embarrassing” that “Singapore is better than Hong Kong; Hong Kong is better than Taiwan; Taiwan is better than the mainland.”
Ko did not elaborate, but Taipei City Government spokesman Sidney Lin (林鶴明) said the mayor’s remarks were intended to highlight some of the positive influences of colonization, without denying the “historic scars” and “bad memories” left behind by colonizers.
Photo: Fan Pin-chao, Taipei Times
While the “open door” brought by colonization influenced colonized societies in a variety of ways, colonizers also left infrastructure and institutions that had an undeniably positive affect, Lin added.
In the interview, Ko reiterated comments that the “cultural gap” between Taiwan and China had to be closed before there could be any talk of “reunification.”
“When more than 99 percent of Chinese people close the doors while doing their business in bathrooms, we can talk about reunification [sic],” he said.
On cross-strait relations, he said: “Cooperation is more important than reunification,” while speaking of a need to convince China that “a free and democratic Taiwan is more in China’s interest than reunification.”
“People talked about ‘one country, two systems,’ but maybe we should talk about ‘two countries, one system’ instead,” he said.
Ko’s celebrity and status as an independent politician have led to hopes that he might be able serve as a bridge between the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and China through his participation in the annual Taipei-Shanghai forum.
Whether his proposal for a “two countries, one system” formula would have a bearing on cross-strait relations is unknown.
Late last night, Lin said that Ko has an open attitude toward cross-strait city-to-city exchanges and upholds the principles that both sides should know, understand and respect each other while cooperating.
In response to Ko’s proposal last week that the forum include other cities, Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong (楊雄) said that further exchanges were welcome “on the foundation of the 1992 consensus.”
While China insists that the so-called “1992 consensus” of “one China with different interpretations” must be the premise of any cross-strait talks, Ko said in December last year that the slogan was a 22 year-old “consensus without consensus,” which should be replaced by what he termed a “2015 consensus.”
He declined to define what such a consensus might be.
“Without taking any position on the 1992 consensus, it is impossible to expect Shanghai to cooperate,” National Taiwan University associate professor of political science Chang Teng-chi (張登及) said. “The original hope was that there might be a possibility for Ko as an independent to have a greater flexibility to reinterpret the 1992 consensus by reiterating some part of it without ‘recognizing’ or ‘totally denying it.’”
Major questions remain over the role Ko might be able to play, he said, adding Ko will face major hurdles due the necessities of managing the city government as well as his lack of understanding of the “very detailed and subtle” aspects of the cross-straits relationship.
Asked about Ko’s colonization remarks, National Chengchi University Taiwanese History department professor Hsueh Hua-yuan (薛化元) said that imperialism in contemporary history often brought about systems and construction that are later utilized by the former colony.
It is hard to deny that colonists affected their former colonies and brought about the modernization of colonized areas, Hsueh said.
National Taipei University Department of Administration and Policy professor Hao Pei-chih (郝培芝) said that the comments reflect Ko’s experience and views that being law-abiding represents advancement.
What is left for the former colony depends largely on the colonizer, Hao said, referring to how most former French colonies remain less developed, while those of England and Japan were more developed.
This story has been updated since it was first published.
Additional reporting by Tseng Wei-chen and Jake Chung, staff reporter with staff writer
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 —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS