Taiwanese authorities have rebuffed Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's warning against the island's independence movement saying Taiwan's future should be decided by the people here rather than Beijing.
"It was nothing new at all. We are not surprised," Huang Wei-feng, deputy chief of Taiwan's China policy decision-making body Mainland Affairs Council, told reporters when asked to comment on Wen's remarks.
"They have been doing this all the way. Didn't they say they have hinged their hope on Taiwan people? But as a matter of fact, they have no idea what Taiwan people are thinking and what they want," Huang said.
Wen issued the warning while addressing the opening of the National People's Congress annual session at Beijing, pledging that "we will uncompromisingly oppose secessionist activities aimed at Taiwan independence."
Tensions spiked last week after Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, defying pressure from Washington and Beijing, formally scrapped an advisory council and guidelines set up to look at eventual reunification with the mainland.
The council was set up 15 years ago by a non-democratic government, and at the time Beijing objected to the council. Everyone can see authoritarian logic hard at work: Beijing says it is a provocation when the council is erected, and Beijing says its a provocation when it is shut down. It should be obvious that the real problem is that for Beijing, Taiwan is a provocation. "We are a little land. And little lands on the borders of a great empire were always hateful to the lords of the great empire. He longs to blot them out, gobble them up."
The Yahoo report is a cut above most, for it gives Taiwan's rebuttals:
The council was considered largely symbolic and had been dormant since 2000 but Chen's decision infuriated Beijing, which accused Chen of pushing the region towards disaster.The Taiwanese government has defended the scrapping of the advisory council and guidelines insisting that they were not decided by the people but by the former Kuomintang (KMT, or Nationalist) government in 1990.
"Taiwan is already a democratic society. It's natural in such society to have various opinions on the issues," Huang said.
Against the backdrop, "Taiwan's future should be decided by the 23 million Taiwan people," he said.
Including that last great comment about Taiwan's future. Still contains that common error:
Even though China and Taiwan separated after civil war in 1949, Beijing still considers the island part of its territory and has threatened to retake the island by force if it moves towards independence.
China and the KMT separated in 1949. Taiwan had never been part of China.
[Taiwan] [China]
7 comments:
"Taiwan's future should be decided by the people here rather than Beijing."
That's exactly what Beijing has in mind. It wants the fate of Taiwan to be decided by the people - After all, rabid mainland Chinese nationalists are people, aren't they.
ACB
http://angrychineseblogger.blog-city.com/
Angry Chinese Blogger either doesn't know what "here" means or -- if he does -- has a strange understanding of Beijing's idea of "democracy."
ACB is the blogger who insists on frequently adding the word "Chinese" in front of Taiwan, claiming that "If I don't put the 'Chinese' suffix on the front, how are American's [sic] supposed to know that it isn't part of Japan or the Philpines [sic], or great [sic] Britain for that matter" and adding "It will be Taiwanese Taiwan when it is ruled by the Taiwanese and not by ethnic Chiunese [sic] Taiwanese."
Bingo. Status quo = head-in-the-sand while China slowly strangles Taiwan and reduces it's options to one... annexation.
"Taiwan had never been part of China."
"Never" is a strong word. It's true that for most of China's long history, Taiwan was not considered by anyone to be part of China, but Qing Dynasty conquered the island after driving out the last of hold-outs of the Ming Dynasty who fled there as a last resort (history does like to repeat itself) and controlled Taiwan until it was ceded to Japan after their short war in the late 19th century.
I'd agree that it's not much of a basis for claiming that Taiwan is part of China now, but it's still not true that China "never" controlled Taiwan. Now, if you mean "the PRC never controlled Taiwan", well that's completely different....
American in Taiwan
American in Taiwan:
the Qing held the lowlands (actually they were under constant revolt, one of which drove them off the island entirely, and a couple of others which nearly did) but never held the highlands. In fact several times they informed foreign powers that they did not have sovereignty over the tribes that lived there and were not responsible for their actions. it was only the actions of western powers and Japan, interested in Formosa, that forced the Qing to upgrade Taiwan's status later in the 19th century and fend off inquiries about its status.
Also, the Qing were Manchus, who ceded Taiwan in perpetuity to Japan. Basically either the Qing were not Chinese, in which case Taiwan was part of an empire controlled by a foreign dynasty and Taiwan is no more a part of China than Belgium is part of Poland because Germany controlled parts of them both OR the Qing are China and thus Taiwan has been ceded in perpetuity. Either fork serves my purposes -- you choose.
Basic points:
*No government has ever controlled all of Taiwan and China simultaneously
*No ethnic Chinese emperor ever ruled Taiwan.
Michael
American in Taiwan questioned Michael saying:
- - -
"Taiwan had never been part of China."
- - -
One might be able to parse that sentence to mean all kinds of things, but read a few posts on the blog, and you'll know that the "China" to which Michael is referring here isn't any of the many historical Chinas. It's the PRC (which didn't come into being until 1949) -- more commonly referred to by its short form, "China."
Therefore, Michael is correct.
State it like this, and it can't be denied:
"The PRC has never ruled Taiwan -- not even for a nanosecond."
The use of the word "never" is intentionally "strong."
What STOP_George and Shavenpope said! The longer we "maintain" the "status quo," the worse off we'll be, because China certainly isn't "maintaining" any kind of "status quo."
The March 9, 2006 edition of the Taipei Times has an excellent editorial cartoon illustrating how China is manipulating the "status quo."
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