On June 27, 1950, two days after North Korea invaded the south, US president Harry Truman dispatched the US Seventh Fleet to the Taiwan Strait to protect Taiwan and prevent a Chinese invasion.
That move, 60 years ago, not only set the stage for US assistance to Taiwan over the next two decades but also helped stabilize Taiwan’s economy, allowing it to quickly develop into one of Asia’s fastest growing.
While Taiwan’s military did not participate in the conflict — despite offers to do so by dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) — academics and Korean experts said yesterday in Taipei that it was a defining moment for the country, still under threat at the time from Chinese aggression.
“Originally the US didn’t want to supply Taiwan or Penghu anymore. But the Korean War marked a significant change in US policy,” said Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深), president of the Taiwan Association of University Professors. “The forgotten war ... propped up the Republic of China government-in-exile.”
Following China’s entry into the war in October 1950, the Peoples Liberation Army reorganized its Taiwan invasion force into the Northeast Frontier Force and subsequently into the People’s Volunteer Army which was sent into the Korean peninsula.
“It can be said that the [Korean] conflict was of benefit to Taiwan ... it protected Taiwan from communization due to an invasion from China,” said Rick Chu (朱立熙) a Korean expert and founder of the Taiwan-based Korean Studies Academy.
Six decades later, the Korean War still offers valuable lessons for a burgeoning cross-strait relationship, said Paul Lin (林保華), a political commentator and researcher who specializes in Chinese Communist Party (CCP) history.
After the war, Chinese history books wrote that the US and South Korea, which they said initiated the conflict, lost the war in the face of Chinese participation and suffered millions of casualties, said Lin who grew up in China during the period.
“It was a complete distortion of history. It shows China’s continued willingness to distort history through the media and through [education],” he said. “But some people in Taiwan continue to ignore China’s nature.”
Saying China has never given up its ambitions to unify Taiwan, by force if necessary, Lin added that, “China's danger to Taiwan has not changed one bit.”
“They wanted to [unify] Taiwan through the use of weapons before, but now they want to use the economy … [They want to] trick Taiwan into signing the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China.”
This has become increasingly apparent through the offshoring of Taiwanese businesses and industries to China, said William Kao (高為邦), who used to head the Victims of Investment in China Association, a move that could be accelerated by the signing of an ECFA.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS