New Power Party Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and other advocates yesterday said that, despite US President Barack Obama’s comments, independence is still a necessity for Taiwan.
Obama on Friday said that Taiwanese have “a high degree of self-determination” and that “Taiwanese have agreed that as long as they’re able to continue to function with some degree of autonomy, that they won’t charge forward and declare independence.”
Obama’s ideas about Taiwan seem to be entrenched in a decades-old mindset, which was first forged when the US switched official diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China and adopted the “one China” policy, Huang said at a seminar held to discuss issues pertaining to Taiwanese independence organized by the Taiwan Association of University Professors.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
After years of democratization, Taiwan is a considerably different nation from when the US was shaping its “one China” policy, Huang said.
“There is a large gap between Obama’s speech and the Taiwanese perception [of reality]. Taiwan is already a sovereign nation, but many countries still do not recognize it. To break out from that predicament, we have to work toward normalizing the nation,” Huang said.
“Obama, as the US president, should understand the values of democracy, and those values entitle Taiwanese to the right to make Taiwan a normalized country,” he said.
Calling on all political parties in the US to support Taiwan, Huang encouraged the incoming administration of US president-elect Donald Trump to re-examine Washington’s “one China” policy and treat Taiwan like a true ally instead of a bargaining chip.
Academia Sinica assistant research fellow Wu Rwei-ren (吳叡人) said Obama’s remarks indicated no departure from previous US policies on Taiwan, whereas both houses of the US Congress in July passed legislation reaffirming the “six assurances,” marking an improvement in Taiwan-US relations.
The “bidding” between Obama and Trump over Taiwan-US relations forced Obama to reiterate the US’ commitment to Taiwan, effectively preventing China from interfering in Taiwan’s de facto independence, Wu said.
Although Trump might use Taiwan as a bargaining chip against China, the deals he wanted to reach — including China making concessions over trade and the disputed South China Sea — are hardly attainable, so Trump’s move could help stabilize Taiwan’s status and create a rare opportunity for reassessing the US’ “one China” policy, Wu said.
Thus far, Taiwan is the “small winner” of the Obama-Trump exchange, as the nation has succeeded in gaining rare international attention without being a troublemaker, he said.
Taiwanese independence is absolutely necessary given that Chinese expansionism and imperialism is on the rise and Trump’s administration might implement unorthodox foreign policies, Wu said.
“Under China’s economic and military threat, Taiwan’s efforts to deepen its democracy have been deterred to the point that the nation’s de facto independence could be compromised,” Wu said.
Apparent attempts by China to interfere with Taiwan’s autonomy include military activities, economic invasion, collusion with Taiwanese politicians and businesses and acquisitions of Taiwanese media to manipulate society, he said.
Other attempts include restricting Taiwan from amending the Constitution and the Referendum Act (公民投票法) to attain a direct democracy.
The Democratic Progressive Party, which on Friday last week raised a motion to shelve proposals for a referendum on amending the constitutional definition of Taiwan’s territories, seems to be cooperating with Beijing to prevent a direct democracy, he said.
While the Additional Articles of the Constitution stipulate that a proposal passed by the Legislative Yuan on territorial changes should be ratified by a referendum, it was considered by the government to be “too controversial and too provocative” to be written into law, suggesting China’s influence over Taiwan’s democratic development, Huang said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS