The mentality of deep-blue voters “resembled the Klu Klux Klan,” business tycoon Robert Tsao (曹興誠) said yesterday, following accusations from film director Liu Chia-chang (劉家昌) that he “brought shame on [his] ancestors.”
Liu on Sunday wrote on Facebook that Tsao advocates independence, after the United Microelectronics Corp founder earlier this month attended a campaign rally for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate Chen Shih-chung (陳時中).
“Although you recovered your ROC [Republic of China] citizenship after returning from Singapore, you still help the green independents by guarding their flank,” Liu wrote. “I remind you from the perspective of the ROC that ... you should not insult the nation.”
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
“Chairman Tsao, no one cares if you do not want to be Chinese except you bring shame on the Tsao family’s ancestors. The ROC does not lose anything if you stop being a citizen,” he wrote, adding that his preferred candidate would lose against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安).
“When Chiang Wan-an is elected, you people will know the power of ROC citizens. People who had enough will stand up to you,” Liu continued.
Tsao said Liu’s “rant” showed that the KMT base has a “mental problem.”
Liu’s belief that ROC citizenship is defined by allegiance to the KMT shows that a sense of superiority prevails among the party’s base, Tsao wrote in an article on the Chinese-language Web site High-On.
“The argument sounds like the Klan from the southern US made up of white people who ‘had enough’ after black people — their former slaves and inferiors — got political power,” Tsao wrote.
The Chinese Communist Party treats ordinary Chinese as inferior, Tsao wrote, citing Beijing’s “zero COVID-19” policy.
When the KMT was in power in Taiwan, it acted similarly, Tsao said, citing its treatment of independence advocates before Taiwan became a democracy.
The KMT treated Taiwanese as inferior based on the assumptions that they were influenced by foreign forces based in the US and Japan, and that they were corrupted by Western democratic thought, he said.
However, Taiwanese started making demands to be their own masters, he said.
Taiwanese have a high degree of consensus that Taiwan should be independent and that its political system should be republican, he said, adding that the nation has pursued those goals since Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) became president in 1996, he said.
“The increase in the number of independent states to 195 countries today from 60 countries in 1945 shows that civilization trends toward nations becoming independent,” he said. “If a person wants to reunite [the British empire], they are definitely insane.”
The democratization of Taiwan is being opposed by the “mental patients who are viciously calling for the extermination of people who support Taiwanese independence just like the Klan,” he said.
“I urge Liu and his friends to reflect on their anti-independence beliefs and get on the right side of history,” he said.
The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said. Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said. The ship seized near Penghu in January was the Yun Ao (雲澳), detained by the CGA’s
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant
Beijing’s recent provocative actions against the Philippines in the South China Sea were partly meant as a “dress rehearsal” for the invasion of Taiwan, former US deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger said at a Heritage Foundation forum in Washington on Tuesday. Beijing’s blocking of a Philippine resupply mission on June 17 with unprecedented violence had multiple implications. “What they’re doing is trying to demonstrate that they can blockade, create a sense of futility and discredit the idea that the United States is going to help not only the Philippines, but by extension Taiwan,” Pottinger said. Pottinger was referring to a clash