National identity is growing in Taiwan, the Asian Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
The newspaper said in a report from Taipei that the presidential race is putting the spotlight on the growth of a unique Taiwanese national identity -- a trend that suggests the nation's accelerating economic integration with China is not necessarily bringing the two sides closer to Beijing's goal of political unification.
"The burgeoning sense of national identity was on vivid display Saturday, as more than one million of Taiwan's 23 million people took part in a human chain stretching nearly 500 kilo-meters from the island's northern tip to its southernmost point," the report said.
For decades, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had tried to instill in people the belief that Taiwan was part of China, it said.
"But with the flourishing of the island's democracy since the early 1990s and the advent of generations of younger people who generally have no direct, personal connection to China, a sense of a separate Taiwanese identity has emerged," it said.
The Taiwanese identity, the report said, was evident in the actions and statements of President Chen Shui-bian (
This Taiwanese identity has gained strength even as trade and investment across the Taiwan Strait have exploded.
The report said a poll conducted by National Chengchi University last June showed that 41.5 percent of respondents identified only as Taiwanese, up from 17.3 percent when the university conducted its first such poll 11 years earlier.
In related news, Chinese state-run media stepped up its rhetoric yesterday against Chen, calling him an aggressive henchman who had failed his electorate.
Reacting to Chen's remarks over the weekend that an independently existing Taiwan was not equivalent to de-Sinicization, the China Daily accused him of being a "reckless, tight-rope walking `president.'"
"Personality disorder aside, the rationale behind `president' Chen's statement is obviously unpersuasive," the paper said.
Chen was quoted as saying: "From the perspective of state dignity and sovereignty equity, Taiwan is not a part of China.
"But the other way round, from the perspectives of history, blood relationship and culture, China and Chinese culture indeed are a part of Taiwan," Chen had said.
The China Daily said Chen was wooing votes and did not want to "alienate those worried about his dangerous anti-mainland posturing."
"It is unusual for `president' Chen to admit the island's kinship with the mainland," it said.
"Until very recently, he has been an aggressive henchman of an ambitious name-changing movement targeted at eliminating the island's association with the mainland.
"In order not to draw criticism for kowtowing to the mainland one-China stance, `president' Chen took China as a part of Taiwan while acknowledging the island's association with the mainland," it said.
In a separate opinion piece by Liu Hong (劉紅), a researcher with the Institute of Taiwan Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Chen's "separatist posturing" had led to instability on the island and "serious blunders" in formulating economic policy.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS