Despite repeated calls from his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) peers, former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) yesterday left for China to attend a series of commemorative events in Beijing to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
“The primary appeal of Lien’s visit is to garner reciprocity and dignity. Let us look forward to it,” Lien’s aide Chang Jung-kung (張榮恭), a former KMT vice secretary-general, said at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport before Lien boarded China Airlines Flight CI517 for Beijing.
Chang said the series of commemorations were “a major event for the zhonghua minzu [Chinese ethnic group, 中華民族]” and that Lien would “make appropriate statements” regarding who should take credit for the 1945 victory over the Japanese at Beijing’s internationally oriented commemorative events.
Photo: Yao Kai-shiou, Taipei Times
China has its own perspective regarding what it refers to as the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japan, Chang said, adding that bilateral dialogue could achieve what unilateral action could not and create a complementary situation.
Regarding President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) warning that Lien’s participation in Beijing’s military parade would not be “appropriate,” Chang said they could arrive at the same end by different means and that historical interpretations should be open to exchanges of opinions and reconciliation.
Despite Chang’s sugarcoating of Lien’s widely criticized China visit, a group of young Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) members and a number of pro-independence advocates staged a protest at the airport, accusing Lien of humiliating and selling out Taiwan.
Chanting slogans such as “Grandpa Lien betraying Taiwan” and “Do not come back, grandpa Lien,” TSU Department of Youth Affairs director Chang Chao-lin (張兆林) said Lien might as well “just die in China,” because he is no longer welcome in Taiwan.
One of the demonstrators forcibly wrapped a protest banner around Chang Jung-kung’s head before Chang Chao-lin made a failed attempt to throw one of his shoes at the former KMT vice secretary-general.
Chang Chao-lin ended the protest by threatening to gather more people to “welcome” Lien back to Taiwan on Thursday.
Lien’s departure was seen as a slap in the face for several KMT heavyweights, including Ma, who called Lien’s scheduled attendance at China’s commemorative military parade on Thursday inappropriate in an apparent attempt to persuade him from going.
Former premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村), the Presidential Office, the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of National Defense had all pubicly spoken against Lien’s planned visit.
KMT caucus deputy whip Lin Te-fu (林德福) said he believed Lien would be guided by “a ruler in his heart” when asked to comment on the 79-year-old’s insistence on making the trip yesterday.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday warned that Lien’s visit to Beijing might send the wrong message to the international community.
“The two sides [Taiwan and China] have different interpretations of history, and China has not ruled out taking military action against Taiwan,” she said.
“As a former vice president of the nation, Mr Lien’s decision to attend a military parade [in China] is not in accordance with the feelings of Taiwanese and could send the wrong message to the international community,” Tsai added.
Meanwhile, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday refused to comment on DPP legislators’ remarks that the KMT’s failure to take more forceful action to prevent Lien’s visit was tantamount to deliberately letting Lien trample over Ma.
“Is it necessary for me to comment on the remarks of some DPP lawmakers?” Chu said.
However, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) made comments at a Buddhist event in Kaohsiung yesterday that many perceived as having been directed at Lien, saying it was the guiding principle of Buddhism to act with the benefit of all people at heart.
“Only a stable Taiwan can ensure a stable Asia-Pacific region,” Wang said.
Additional reporting by Su Fu-nan and Loa Iok-sin
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
RSS