The Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) has reacted with “surprise and indignation” at President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) call for Taiwanese people to refer to China as “mainland China” or “the other side.”
FAPA president Bob Yang (楊英育) said: “To me, this is a throwback to the bad old days of the Civil War between the Chinese Nationalists of [former Republic of China (ROC) leader] Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and the communists of [former Chinese leader] Mao Zedong (毛澤東).”
“The Ma government should realize that the ‘Republic of China’ lost its legitimacy more than 30 years ago, and that the new -reality is that the People’s -Republic of China [PRC] represents China, and that Taiwan is a free and democratic country separate from China,” he added.
Ma made his call at a tea party with leading government and legislative officials on Monday.
Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said that the use of “mainland” or “the other side” would avoid confusion, adding that: “The declaration was made in accordance with the Republic of China Constitution. Only by doing so can we uphold national sovereignty and protect Taiwan’s dignity.”
However, FAPA — one of the most active of Taiwanese--American groups — does not agree.
“In order for Taiwan to -preserve its democracy, it needs to strengthen its ties with the international community and everyone in the international community refers to Taiwan as ‘Taiwan.’ The time for anachronistic ‘ROC’ fictions is over,” Yang said.
A written statement, distributed by FAPA’s Washington office, said that Ma’s latest suggestion came on the heels of efforts by both the PRC and the Ma administration to lock Taiwan into the “1992 consensus,” which FAPA described as “a fiction conjured up by former Ma government official Su Chi (蘇起), who said that in 1992 the two sides agreed to ‘one China,’ but that each side could have its own interpretation.”
The FAPA statement read: “The problem with this ‘consensus’ is that the PRC never agreed that each side could have its own interpretation, while former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) — who served as president from 1988 through 2000 — has stated that such a consensus never existed in the first place.”
“It would behoove the Ma government to come back to reality and accept that China is China and Taiwan is Taiwan,” Yang said. “Playing his semantic games is detrimental to Taiwan and its future as a free and democratic nation.”
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but