Taiwan cannot fall to China
Although several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators voiced their support for Chinese influencer Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), who runs the social media account “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣), she was ultimately given a deadline to leave Taiwan after her spousal dependency-based residency was revoked due to her calling for China to use military force against Taiwan. Society breathed a collective sigh of relief when she departed Taiwan voluntarily on Tuesday last week.
Meanwhile, the KMT and Taiwan People’s Party legislative majority passed a second reading of a proposal to hold a referendum opposing the implementation of martial law. This is eyebrow-raising as the KMT’s former leaders, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son and successor president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) declared martial law, fearing that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would cross the Taiwan Strait and invade Taiwan after the KMT fled here at the end of the Chinese Civil War. Martial law lasted here for 38 years. Because military law continued for far too long, the Chiangs were accused of contravening human rights. Taiwan’s civilians eventually triumphed in getting martial law rescinded in 1987.
Although martial law can infringe on civil liberties, if any country faces imminent existential threats, its leader could still declare it.
What is martial law exactly? Wikipedia’s entry on the topic defines it as: Emergency measures taken when a country is involved in war with an outside power, disturbed by domestic discord, and other serious threats to public order. When martial law is in effect, judicial and executive powers are managed in part or in whole by the military. Some countries integrate martial law into a state of emergency and level-one war preparedness.
With the CCP sending Chinese People’s Liberation Army ships and aircraft to harass our country, domestic pro-China political parties, Internet celebrities and media outlets in Taiwan continue to say that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family,” and our government faces internal and external pressure through military and verbal threats. If the day comes when our nation truly faces a security crisis, but we cannot respond using martial law to control the media or anti-government forces, and can only twiddle our thumbs as bad actors spread rumors and destroy social order, we would ultimately lose our democratic freedoms and economic prosperity. By then we would fall into an inescapable abyss.
Is falling to China really what all Taiwanese want? We must recall KMT legislators so Taiwan can continue its days of peace and prosperity.
Wang Ming-tsung
Taipei
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