Advocacy

After being colonized by Japan for 50 years, Taiwan’s economy was flourishing, with most people having conception of the rule of law and high education level, despite the fact that political freedom was limited. Therefore, when the ROC government took over after WWII, it was not a surprise that there would be conflicts between Taiwanese who were more civilized and the ROC government which were “less civilized”. The original lifestyle of Taiwanese was forced to change and the economy was harmed, while having no rights politically. Various conflicts constantly happened, which ultimately led to the nationwide protest, 228 incident, with appeals including “establish investigation unit” and “Taiwanese autonomy”. Finally it ended with ruthless suppression, massacre, and decades of colonial ruling under high pressure.

 

After being colonized by the UK for 150 years, Hong Kong’s economy was flourishing, with most people having conception of the rule of law and high education level, despite the fact that political freedom was limited. Therefore, when the PRC government took over after 1997, it was not a surprise that there would be conflicts between Hong Kong people who were more civilized and the PRC government which were “less civilized”. The original lifestyle of Hong Kong people was forced to change and the economy was harmed, while having no rights politically. Various conflicts constantly happened, which ultimately led to the region-wide protest this year, with appeals including “establish individual investigation committee” and “authentic universal suffrage”. The government never gave a direct response but kept heightening the level of suppression.

 

At this point we can discover that Taiwan and Hong Kong have faced such a similar situation despite the difference in terms of language, history, and culture. The major difference is that the situation in Hong Kong is still ongoing with an ending unknown, while the ending in Taiwan has already happened with consequences much worse than Hong Kong. This, the deja vu of “yesterday’s Taiwan, today’s Hong Kong”, is exactly why Taiwanese feel the rage and aching when seeing the current situation in Hong Kong.

 

At this point, we now understand the empathy of “victim A who has already been beaten” witnessing “victim B who is now being beaten” when Taiwanese look at the current Hong Kong situation.

 

Yet, is that all to the relationship between Taiwan and Hong Kong?

 

No. In fact there is a relation that’s even more direct: a common offender. The offender here is not referring to the Communist Party of China, but the larger ideology behind it: Chinese nationalism.

 

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Hong Kong and Taiwan have the same enemy: Chinese Nationalism

 

If you have some knowledge of the so-called “Chinese history,” you might notice the emphasis of  the “great mission of unity” within the interpretation of history. Since the centralized empire built by Qin Dynasty two thousand years ago, almost every founder(the first emperor) of a “great unity empire” has been remembered, or even praised. It seems like only building a unified empire is the right path, and other small tribes or ethnographic groups are rebels or enemies of the empires who should be suppressed. However, “the Chinese history” barely mentioned the stories of these suppressed small tribes or ethnographic groups. What kinds of culture did they have? What kinds of life did they live? Why should they listen to the empire? Why were they forced to choose between either “being suppressed” or “submission”? No one cares, and they just disappeared. 

 

This ideology of “great unity” is a kind of imperialism. Although it’s not quite the same as “New Imperialism” which had risen in modern Europe, but they both have the specialties of expansion, discrimination, priority of the hierarchy, and so on.

 

However, the traditional imperialism has been challenged by New Imperialism and nationalism for a couple of centuries. New Imperialism tried to devour old empires by their advantage of military force, and the ethnographic groups ruled by old empires also tried to take the opportunity to get rid of old empires’ control. As an endangered old empire, Qing Dynasty wanted to keep its legitimacy, which was why someone(Liang Qichao) invented the concept of “Chinese Nation.” He claimed that all ethnographic groups living in the empire’s territory belong to a “unity” named Chinese Nation. It seems like a kind of nationalism, but it’s actually still an imperialism in disguise. Therefore, I call this ideology of imperialism with an illusion of nationalism “Chinese Nationalism.”

 

Chinese nationalism started to influence Taiwan since the occupation of Japanese, such as the Taiwan People’s Party founded by Wei-shui Chiang in 1927. People identified themselves “Taiwanese who belong to the Chinese Nation” and opposed Japan's colonial and assimilation policies, resulting from the oppression of the Japanese empire. Chinese nationalism was officially brought into Taiwan along with the Republic of China armed force after World War II. Since then, the government sinicized Taiwanese with a heavy hand, neglecting the self-determination and independence of the indigenous people. The "patriotic education" brainwashed Taiwanese into identifying themselves Chinese for decades, and the “national language policy” coerced the subjectivity of numerous aborigines’ language. These were just a few of the countless crimes that Chinese nationalism had done to Taiwan.

 

Since the PRC government took over Hong Kong in 1997, they have also spared no effort to incorporate the “patriotic education” into the school curriculum in Hong Kong. It even carried out the “promotion of Putonghua (Mandarin)”, in order to exterminate the usage of Cantonese, and further uproot the subjectivity of Hong Kong people. In the clutches of Chinese nationalism, Taiwan and Hong Kong seem to be in the same boat. The difference is that the brainwashing movements have almost been completed in Taiwan, while they are now in full swing in Hong Kong.

 

There are two representative authorities of Chinese nationalism, the ROC government and the PRC government. Since Chinese nationalism has put much emphasis on orthodoxy, these two authorities have been in a long-running dispute. Therefore, despite the fact that Taiwan and Hong Kong are ruled by two different governments, they both share the same core concept: Chinese nationalism. As a result, the common enemy of Hong Kong and Taiwan is not the communist party, but an even more vicious villain—Chinese nationalism. 

 

 

Hypothetical situation...

 

Assume that the recent Hong Kong’s time revolution ends in failure and various protests have been successfully suppressed, with the PRC government canceling Hong Kong’s “One Country, Two Systems” policy. A large number of People's Liberation Army of China enters Hong Kong for bloody suppression and cleansing. Afterwards, martial law and coercion are announced and enforced.

 

However, the government of the PRC has actually been busy enough with its own affairs. In a few years after Hong Kong was directly taken over by PRC, several incidents and wars rage within the PRC’s territory, and faction battles within the controlling group lead to the weakening control of different regions. Tibet was independent, East Turkistan (Xinjiang) has established its own country; Southern Mongolia (Inner Mongolia) was re-acquired by Mongolia; Northeast China, Southern China, Eastern China are separated from the central government, and the communist Chinese Empire collapsed.

 

At this moment, Xi Jinping, the chairman of the PRC, with the defeated army, would retreat to Hong Kong with the Communist Party of China and establish a "Counterattack against Mainland" base in Hong Kong, but in fact they can only be trapped in Hong Kong and continue to implement coercion.

 

In the next few decades, Xi Jinping would be serving as the chairman of the country until he passed away. After the chairman of PRC changes several times afterwards, Hong Kong people's calling for "universal suffrage" gets louder and louder, and there are more and more political protests going on. Later, the PRC government in Hong Kong could not resist the pressure of Hong Kong people and the world, and finally opened up universal suffrage so that Hong Kong people can vote for the chairman of the PRC.

 

In the election, the two main political parties were the "the Communist Party of China" and the "Hong Kong Democratic Party" established by the Hong Kong people to fight against the Communist Party of China. Sometimes the Hong Kong Democratic Party will be in power to serve as the chairman of the PRC, but more often the Communist Party of China is in power, and the parliament is always half-seated by the Communist Party of China.

 

At this time, the Hong Kong people happily waved the five-star national flag and said that the PRC is their own country, and it is democratic, free, and a model for Asia.

 

(Hypothetical situation ends.)

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I believe that everyone will feel that the hypothetical situation mentioned above is a ridiculous drama. Sadly and ironically, this ridiculous drama has been in Taiwan for a while, bloody and real.

 

 

 

The Unholy Trinity of Chinese Nationalism in Taiwan

 

Republic of China (ROC), the political party Chinese Kuo Min Tang (KMT) that brought ROC to Taiwan, the affiliated organizations and the parties that were afterwards separated from them, and all pro-reunification parties that hold Chinese nationalism sacred are representing the Chinese nationalism that is killing the subjectivity of Taiwan. ROC, Chinese KMT and pro-reunification groups can be seen as the Unholy Trinity of Chinese Nationalism in Taiwan.

 

If you think it’s ridiculous for the Hong Kong people to be voting for the Chinese Communist Party and identifying themselves with PRC in the above hypothetical situation, then we should also find it absurd that there are Taiwanese people voting for Chinese KMT and identifying themselves with ROC.

 

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What does the Hong Kong revolution have to do with the election in Taiwan?

 

Some say, “vote for KMT, Taiwan becomes Hong Kong” as if Taiwan would immediately be reunified by the Chinese Communication Party once Chinese KMT takes office. Personally I wouldn’t dare rule out this possibility while I don’t find it very likely to happen. But so what? Even if the chances of being reunified by Red China (PRC) are low, Taiwan will have already been reunified by Blue China (ROC). Also since Blue China and Red China have the same origins and share the same ideology of Chinese nationalism, it is not an issue at all for them to be working together, which is obviously happening at the moment already. With Chinese KMT in office, under the banner of Chinese nationalism, the subjectivity of Taiwan will only gradually die away and eventually face the inevitable fate of either direct or indirect reunification by Red China.

 

#Do not vote for Chinese KMT if you support Hong Kong

 

Some say, vote for Tsai Ing-wen to support Hong Kong and to prevent Taiwan from becoming the next Hong Kong.

 

The logic of this point needs some elaboration.

 

Support Hong Kong against Chinese nationalism.

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Taiwan should also fight against Chinese nationalism.

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Do not support the Unholy Trinity of Chinese nationalism in Taiwan (ROC, Chinese KMT, Reunification groups)

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Although Tsai Ing-wen represents the regime of ROC, at least she does not belong to the Chinese KMT, and therefore we should support her at the moment.

 

This is the sad truth. Taiwanese people are forced to pursue their freedom from within the system of ROC and thus forced to make absurd choices.

 

However, note that there is still a less absurd choice of the two.

 

Han Kuo-yu: Supports ROC, belongs to Chinese KMT, level of absurdness=100%

Tsai Ing-wen: Supports ROC Taiwan, doesn’t belong to Chinese KMT, level of absurdness=50%

 

 

 

Two-party system is the biggest lie of contemporary Taiwan 

 

Some may think that, “I could not support DPP, because they are equally bad.” ”DPP is so bad and a party alternation is needed.“ “KMT is needed to balance DPP. We could not allow one-party dominant system.”

 

In my opinion, there are different levels of “badness.” I do not think the extent of the DPP and the KMT’s badness is very difficult to distinguish. Conservatively speaking, even if someone thinks that the “current” badness of the two parties are at the same level, if you study through Taiwan history and the above context about Chinese nationalism, it is clear that the KMT should not even exist in Taiwan at all. The point that the DPP is terrible and their power needs to be balanced is probably right, but it should never be the KMT (or any other Chinese nationalism parties) playing the role.

 

Therefore, the slogan, “the KMT not out, Taiwan not well” appeared. I sincerely hope that one day, the KMT will be down and there will finally be room for local Taiwnese party (non-Chinese-nationalism party) to compete with DPP. They supervise each other and take turns rule.

 

Only in this situation can the Unholy Trinity of Chinese Nationalism gradually fade out from Taiwan. Taiwanese people can finally vote at their own will without worrying that one day Taiwan might become Hong Kong. Taiwanese people can finally have their own country and freedom. 

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Hong Kong independent, Taiwan founding

 

I am in favor of Hong Kong independence. Although the main appeals do not concern independence at the moment, maybe because they have not yet really thought about this or they are too afraid of being repressed to say, it is impossible for them to practice “Dual universal suffrage and Hong Kong people administer Hong Kong” under PRC’s ruling. As a result, the only way for Hong Kong people to have true freedom is by independence. And the possibility for Hong Kong independence will only appear after the Chinese nationalism empire broke down. Hence, the greatest enemy at the end is still Chinese nationalism, which is the same as the enemy in Taiwan. 

 

Though it might seem impossible to happen, the future is full of possibilities. After all, USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) broke down all of a sudden. 

 

Hope that one day, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and all of the people that is oppressed by Chinese nationalism could be liberated and be freed. 

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