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Chinese authoritarianism
Thursday, Mar 25, 2010, Page 8
China¡¦s conspiracy to annex Taiwan by 2012, as disclosed in Yuan Hongbing¡¦s
(°K¬õ¦B) new book, Taiwan Disaster, and the accelerated pro-China activities of the
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime pose an ominous danger to the survival of
Taiwan¡¦s democracy.
The pretext for annexation is based on the rationale that Taiwan is an integral
part of China.
However, the Great Wall of China and the Taiwan Strait are the silent witnesses
repudiating such a claim.
Until as recently as the Ming Dynasty, the northern boundary of China was the
Great Wall. Therefore, when the Mongol Empire in the 13th century and Manchu
Empire in the 17th century crossed the Great Wall from the north and conquered
China, it ceased to exist as a nation for a combined total of 364 years.
It was during the occupation of the Manchu Empire, or the Qing Dynasty, that
Taiwan was briefly occupied by the Manchus, before being ceded to Japan in 1895.
Similarly, the Taiwan Strait had acted as a boundary that prevented previous
Chinese dynasties from ruling Taiwan.
After World War II, the KMT regime replaced Japan at the request of the UN
Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, but neither the KMT nor the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) regimes signed the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, in
which Japan renounced its sovereignty over Taiwan. Therefore, Taiwan belongs to
the people of Taiwan. It has never been a part of China.
Taiwan Disaster has arrived at the most propitious time to support Taiwan¡¦s
democracy, which is at the forefront of the struggle against a new Chinese
Empire.
We call upon free netizens of the world to condemn China¡¦s unjustified ambition
of territorial expansion under the banner of a ¡§Borderless United Front for
Democracy (BUFFD).¡¨
China¡¦s enactment of a new Military Mobilization Law last month, its 2005
¡§Anti-Secession¡¨ Law, the ever-increasing number of missiles targeting Taiwan,
its vastly modernized armed forces and persistent refusal to renounce the use of
force all suggest China¡¦s determination to annex Taiwan by 2012.
Conquering Taiwan to eliminate its democracy, the best model for China¡¦s
political reform, will only perpetuate the centuries of human misery caused by
its corrupt autocracies.
Notable catastrophic miseries in China date back to the 13th century. During the
initial 50 years of Mongol rule, the Chinese population was reduced by half
because of a mass extermination.
During the Manchu occupation, countless Chinese perished in resistance to the
edict enforcing the Manchu queue hairstyle.
After the fall of Manchu rule, for almost a century, China experienced
internecine struggles between warlords, invasion from Japan, tragic civil wars
between the KMT and CCP and failed implementations of communist policies in
which tens of millions of innocent civilians perished.
Both the KMT and CCP have used the humiliating unequal treaties, incurred in
past wars against European imperialism and Japan, to foment hostilities against
the free world and cover up their own wrongdoings.
Legions of people are now demanding freedom and democracy; they are on the
Internet and the streets of Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Hong Kong and even
within China proper.
To China: Heed the pleas for democracy by former Chinese premier Zhao Ziyang
(»¯µµ¶§), for human rights by courageous dissidents such as Gao Zhisheng (°ª§ÓÑÔ) and
numerous Falun Gong practitioners, and for autonomy and religious freedom by
the Dalai Lama and Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.
The recently released movie Formosa Betrayed, now showing in the US, will remind
people of the past brutalities of KMT authoritarianism and prompt a rejection of
President Ma Ying-jeou¡¦s (°¨^¤E) party, which is openly reverting to its past and
actively participating in a Chinese united front strategy for annexing Taiwan.
The BUFFD and its allies must also prevent profit-oriented international
corporations from becoming the victims of China¡¦s united front strategy, which
jeopardizes the world¡¦s economy and security, and convince China not to squander
the opportunities presented by good intentions from the West and not to use its
newfound wealth to undermine the free world.
Let us all hope that freedom and democracy will eventually prevail from Tibet,
the rooftop of the world, through to China, the world¡¦s most populous country,
and onward to Taiwan, the unsinkable carrier of democracy.
SAMUEL YANG
KUOCHIH HONG,
BINDON CHANG,
ANDREW CHANG
ALLEN KUO
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