Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) representative to the US Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) made an impassioned plea for Taiwan independence at a Thanksgiving banquet in the US on Saturday.
Echoing the words of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, he said that he had “a dream” that Taiwan would be regarded as an equal by the international community.
Wu said that even though Taiwan is a democracy it still suffers from segregation and international discrimination and has not been able to join international organizations such as the UN.
“We participate in organizations under the name ‘Taiwan, Province of China’ or ‘Chinese Taipei,’” he said.
“This is not the right way for Taiwan to participate — Taiwanese should have the same rights as people in any other country,” he added.
“I have a dream. It is that Taiwan will be regarded as an equal by the international community. That Taiwan will participate in the United Nations and all other international organizations just as other countries do,” he said.
Wu was addressing the annual Thanksgiving Banquet of the Taiwanese Association of America — Greater Washington Chapter, which was attended by about 400 Taiwanese Americans.
“I have a dream that Taiwan will be regarded by the international community not as a part of another country, but as a country by itself,” he added.
Speaking with great passion, Wu said that the Taiwanese government exercised exclusive jurisdiction over the territory under its control and therefore Taiwan had the same rights as any other country.
“I have a dream we can use our national flag and our national title and our national anthem and not attract opposition,” he said.
“I don’t want to wake up one morning to find our name has been changed to Taiwan, province of China,” Wu said.
“This is an agony that you and I have to go through and no one else — no other country has this agony,” he said. “We share the same dream that one day we don’t have to face this situation any more.
“I want to see the day when the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations and the Taiwan ambassador to the United Nations can go down the aisle of the General Assembly and say to each other: ‘Let us help those less fortunate countries,’” he said. “Taiwan has a role and a rightful place on the international stage.”
Wu said that polls showed the majority of Taiwanese do not want to be part of another country.
“We need to work with the United States in a way that will bring our dream closer,” he said.
Wu said that Taiwan’s democracy was not perfect and there was a problem with fairness between the two major political parties — the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the DPP.
“The KMT is still the wealthiest political party on the face of the earth,” he said.
By comparison, he said, the DPP was miserable and poverty-stricken.
The DPP’s budget was about one-ninth of the amount collected each year by the KMT in share dividends, he said.
Such a huge disparity in wealth made it very difficult for the DPP to compete in elections.
On the economic front he said that the gap between the rich and the poor in Taiwan was growing while high unemployment and low starting salaries were making life very difficult for young people.
“Young men dare not get married, they dare not have children,” he said. “A generation of young people seem to be lost.”
Wu said that Taiwanese “felt pain at not being afforded full international participation.”
He said that Taiwan was not part of China.
“We struggle to make the international community see that Taiwan should not be represented by China,” he said. “Taiwan is de facto independent. Taiwan is regarded by the law of the US as a real country even though there is no diplomatic recognition.”
He said that Taiwan could serve as an example to Asian governments — “If Taiwan can be democratic, they can be democratic too.”
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
RSS