Time to End the KMT/CCP's myth of China

This week's issue of World Magazine lists on its cover spanning the entire page two words in black and white caps with a background of red: "TIANANMEN MASSACRE". Would that the world's media followed this magazine's example.

This arcticle by Jamie Dean begins:

"Type "Tiananmen Square massacre" into the Chinese-language version of the popular Chinese search engine Baidu, and the first link leads to a video with this title: "The Myth of Tiananmen Massacre." A subhead describes the massacre as "a popular Western myth," and the video features a Chinese man claiming he saw no government violence against civilians in Tiananmen Square on the morning of June 4, 1989. Zhou Fengsuo tells a different story...the gunfire, tanks and blood..." [...more...]

The CCP and the KMT think nothing of rewriting history. They feel no problem with inventing myths and calling history myth if that will deceive people. They care nothing for a free press or freedom of speech but use all to uphold their unjust rule. Back in 1947, US embassy attache George Kerr's urgent reports of the 228 Massacre fell on deaf ears in the US State Department with its "China Desk" pro-China see-no-evil, hear-no-evil attitude. No Formosa Massacre was announced or remembered.

Leaders in democratic nations have to realize that the KMT party governing Taiwan and the CCP regime that governs China both are not operating out of the values that mark nations of the world from Europe to the Americas to Japan, Korea and Australia.

Ruling elites of the KMT in Taiwan and CCP in China are still operating in the imperial and colonial mindsets of the 19th century and earlier. They do not respect international boundaries. They think to grab whatever is within the reach of their power. They think that China should rule the world, or be at the top of the world, and all else annexed or at least become as much as possible an equivalent to a vassal state. They view ethnic Chinese in an almost racist nationalism so that they think about and treat Chinese citizens of other countries differently from other citizens of those countries.

The KMT in Taiwan have created myth after myth to pretend that they govern China -- because they cannot accept the governing in exile of some other country or territory. Nothing less than mythical greater China will do for them. They still foster imaginations that somehow Mongolia should be annexed by China. They claim the ocean and undersea territory all the way to the very edge and shores of Malaysia because at some time, at some legendary point in their "history" maybe some Chinese sailor or fisherman sailed in those seas. And in perhaps the biggest dream of all, the KMT nurture the hope that they may one day seize the throne of China away from the CCP, and then they can finally throw Taiwan out with the trash and be done with it. Or perhaps just cut off Taiwan's head and mount it on a plaque to be displayed in their imperial palace in some side corridor.

They seem to think that if any point in history any kingdom paid any tribute to any empire that had governed the region now known as China, that somehow this kingdom's territory should be annexed if at all possible.

They are wholly self interested, self-centered -- truly a "Center" kingdom.

What is most troubling is that so many in the international media and so many foreign country leaders including President Ma of Taiwan will use whatever mythical language that China dictates in describing the present.

Little do these foreign ministries, departments of state, and international media consider that to encourage this brutal authoritarian dictatorship in China is to expand the number of brutal dictators around the world and to expand the level of human rights abuse in other countries.

Sudan dictator -- supported by China
Myanmar dictators -- supported by China
Iran -- supported by China
North Korea -- supported by China


Sri Lanka -- supported by China. (Now that the Tamil Tigers are defeated, look for some military coup in the future if the present government in Sri Lanka looks like it is beginning to resist China's demands for access to Sri Lanka's ports for China's navy.)

How many others have been emboldened to seize power and ignore the rights of people because the regime in China brazenly continues to do so without consequence!

It is laughable to say -- we need China to help resolve the North Korea situation and to stop North Korea from having nuclear weapons. China could have stopped North Korea over and over and over again. Instead China kept North Korea afloat so that it could use it as leverage to get other countries to make concessions on other issues in accordance with its will. How can anyone expect them to stop North Korea? China will keep holding out for more and more concessions. Will Obama be so naive as to think that making further concessions regarding Taiwan's sovereignty will cause China to crack down on North Korea?

When will the world wake up from their dreams of China? China's violations of human rights are so egregious that even rose-colored glasses are not enough. But, hey, the nations will then put on blindfolds if the glasses don't do the trick.

It is time, this year, to confront China fully for all of its human rights abuses, world destabilization, aggression towards peaceful neighbors, annexation (Tibet) and attempted annexation (Taiwan), and support of dictators, regimes and their human rights violations that even extend to genocide.

Too many in this world have become Neville Chamberlains.

It is time to replace these leaders with Winston Churchills before the appeasement of China leads to a repeat of a history most dark. For that which happened is no myth.

The voice of the Taiwanese people -- pics from the 517 march in Taipei

Taken in Taipei City, in the nation of Taiwan on May 17, 2009
(I have heard one estimate so far -- not yet confirmed -- that at the convergence of the four march routes, there are at least over half a million people -- ~ 600,000 people.)
[Permission is given to copy and distribute these photos and use them in the media and blogs. The more people around the world who see this expression of the voice of the Taiwanese people, the better.]













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UPDATE: Here is an album of pictures from the march.
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NOTE: Email your photos to reporters in around the world -- both in local, national and international news media. Especially if you have pictures that show the crowds and also pictures with clear slogans and signs about why people are there marching and protesting. Give them permission to use the photos and tell them the basics -- what city, what date, what march, whom to list for the photo credit. If there are good photos to use, newspapers etc. are more likely to do a story on the event.

Video: Police illegally stop someone from crossing a public street

Someone in white shirt -- non-uniformed blocking them.

Protect Taiwan from KMT/CCP Imperialism/Fascism/Colonialism on 517

517 Rally for Human Rights and Democracy in a Free Taiwan



***Special Notes***
In Taipei:

1.) Marchers will meet at four different locations at 2pm, and will depart at 3pm for Ketagalan Boulevard. Everyone will meet at Ketagalan Boulevard by 5pm.

A prominent DPP leader will march with the protesters from each meeting point.

Location #1: Zhongxiao East Road at the Dinghao Shopping Plaza

Location #2: Minzu West Road at the Zhongshan Soccer Stadium

Location #3: The corner of Xinsheng and Roosevelt Roads by the main gate of National Taiwan University

Location #4: Bangka Avenue at the Wanhua Train Station

2.) After the rally, the DPP will stage a 24 hour sit-in on Ketagalan Boulevard near the Presidential Palace to protest the strict new assembly law. This is only the second 24 hour sit-in in the DPP’s history. The last time was in 1993, for the presidential elections (before the first direct election in 1996). See you there!!!

src: http://dpptaiwan.wordpress.com/



More info:

Taiwan Matters

Taiwan meets all the criteria of a sovereign nation

Here is an excellent letter to the editor in the Taipei Times by Michael Scanlon that illustrates clearly, yet again, that Taiwan meets the criteria of nationhood. Because of short-term economic interests, or simple ignorance, those nations that deny Taiwan's sovereignty show they value or believe the propaganda of political and historical myth over reality.

Weekly Standard article by Michael Goldfarb -- hit and miss

Factual errors and misrepresentations, perhaps out of ignorance, by Michael Goldfarb in an article in the upcoming May 11 issue of the Weekly Standard need to be corrected by sending letters to the editor.

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First of all, Goldfarb needs to replace the propagandist wording "mainland China" with accurate wording. If he would like to give a longer title, then call it "People's Republic of China," or "China" for short. Taiwan is not connected with any "mainland." Taiwan is "Taiwan."

The government ruling Taiwan now has the long title of the "Republic of China," or "Taiwan" for short. From 1996 to 2008, it looked like the government was moving away from authoritarianism and colonialism towards becoming a legitimate government of Taiwan. It was also moving towards a new name -- either the "Republic of Taiwan" or just "Taiwan" as its official name. After the elections that saw the current President Ma Ying-jeou get elected and his party gain a larger majority in the legislature, it has increasingly moved away from democracy towards authoritarianism and again a colonialist attitude by an ethnic minority of elites ruling the majority population. Since these elites control the KMT party and huge amounts of money stolen from Taiwan over the 50 years of dictatorship, they can control the legislators who owe the party for the campaign financing and so are more loyal to the party than to the constituents who elected them.

President Chen did not pursue "creeping independence" but rather a gradual move from de facto independence to de jure independence. Taiwan has been independent since 1951's Treaty of San Francisco where Japan gave up its claim in perpetuity but did not designate a successor. Until 1996, Taiwan was subject to a colonialist government in exile -- the one-party Leninist dictatorship of the Chinese Nationalist Party who lost a civil war in China and fled as refugees to Taiwan.

Switzerland had de facto independence for more than a century before other nations recognized it. Taiwan has more international recognition than either Switzerland had or the United States had for several decades after it first won its independence from England.

Goldfarb is to be commended for correctly recognizing that Ma Ying-jeou did not get elected with a mandate to pursue unification with China but rather the opposite -- he got elected by pretending to be pro-Taiwan and pro-status quo of de facto independence. He got elected by having overwhelming campaign finances, a party that fully controls almost 90 percent of the television and news media, and eight years of KMT legislative obstructionism. He got elected by promising an improvement of the economy and drawing on the connection of the economic strength of the 1990's under the KMT administration of President Lee Teng-hui.

If he had run on what he is doing now, he probably could not have won the middle electorate and we might have seen Frank Hsieh with 50-60 percent and Ma with the 40 percent instead of the 2008 outcome that was the other way around.

Later on again Goldfarb gets his wording straight out of the propaganda of China -- calling direct air links between the "island and the mainland." We would not use that description for direct air links between Cuba and the USA. Note to all journalists and writers in the media around the world: stick to these words: "China" and "Taiwan."

Unlike the article's take on the situation, the Ma policy of engagement has not led to any success for Taiwan. It has led to success for Ma's real goal of eventual forced unification. China has played the KMT for fools. Each of the "concessions" China has made has only served China's interests. No great economic benefit, no large crop of Chinese tourists -- there has been nothing substantive to benefit Taiwan. It has served to cause business know-how, intellectual capital, money, etc. to flow in a one-way direction -- out of Taiwan into China.

Taiwan has not gained any more international space. Malawi, disgusted with China's colonialist attitudes and empty promises had made gestures to restore ties with Taiwan. Ma sat on his hands. He could have re-established ties with Malawi this year, but he held back -- and only to China's benefit.

The DPP is not "exploiting protectionist sentiment" but raising legitimate economic issues when the policies of Ma, so blinded by the propaganda and ideology in which he was immersed from childhood in the elitist KMT circles, that his policies are not leading to economic parity, but only leading toward a gutting of Taiwan's economy. The DPP cannot take credit for the Taiwanese public outcry at all of the poison, food scares, and corruption in China that would lead Taiwanese to want to be literally protected from China's dangerous goods. Furthermore, with the complete lack of transparency of fair market practices in China, Taiwan also needs to be protected from "dumping" and other procedures that China will design to destroy Taiwan's economy.

The KMT and the CCP have the same goal -- a 21st century Chinese colonial empire. Annexation of Taiwan to China is a mere start. The problem with KMT has is that this vision of empire can only have one emperor. The KMT and the CCP will not be able to share power. And the KMT does not wish to settle for a vassal state kingdom that their party controls. They also cannot handle settling in a separate nation that is not China.

The KMT itself probably does not know how to reach an end game with it on top of the Chinese empire. But in the meantime, it pursues whatever steps will seem to bring it more power. With that in mind, a democratic Taiwan is anathema, something to be tolerated only until they can get away with getting back to the good old days of one party dictatorship.

-JL

KMT using "Greater China" ideology to suppress any loyalty to a Taiwan distinct from China

Please see the post in the Taiwanese Identity blog.

A few quotes:

"Whereas Ma Ying-jeou pretended to a Taiwan-centric consciousness during the presidential campaign, upon his election and inauguration, he has pursued the ruthless Greater China ideology of the authoritarian one-party KMT dictatorship of his father's generation."
...
"Fortunately for the Siraya people, they had registered their ethnicity in the Japanese colonial era, and some had taken very unique Han surnames. So their descendants have been able to ascertain their ancestry and now seek to reclaim their cultural heritage while throwing off the Han culture that was forced on their ancestors.

But with the colonialist "Greater China" ideology of the Chinese Nationalist Party now currently in power in Taiwan, any attempts to revive non-Chinese Austronesian culture are either treated with neglect and indifference or even suppressed if neglect and indifferent do not do the trick to put out the fire of the cause."

The Taipei Times has an April 23, 2009 article exposing the Ma Ying-jeou administration's opposition to the struggles of the Siraya people to restore their ethnicity.