Sir, – Earlier this month, Shih Ming-teh, a pioneer of Taiwanese democracy, died at the age of 83. From an early age, he was one of the leaders who fought the one-party authoritarian rule of the government led by Gen Chiang Kai Shek, which set up its base in Taiwan in 1947 and which ruled from there after losing the civil war to the Chinese Communist Party and fleeing China.
One of the founders of Taiwan’s Democratic People’s Party, the young Shih Ming-teh was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. Along with thousands of political prisoners, he was imprisoned in the outlying islands and would serve a total of some 25 years, a fate with echoes of that suffered by Nelson Mandela in South Africa.
Four decades of martial law in Taiwan came to an end in 1987 and a ban on political parties was lifted. Taiwan was on the road to multiparty democracy, and the island’s first democratic elections took place. Along with the other political prisoners, Shih Ming-teh was eventually released in 1990.
In January this year, Taiwan successfully held its eighth democratic election for president. Some 14 million people voted, and Lai Ching-te (also known as William Lai) of the Democratic People’s Party was elected president.
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As an Irish missionary priest who has spent two decades in Taiwan, I was disappointed to hear Taoiseach Leo Varadkar echoing the Chinese government refrain that “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China”.
This ignores the recent historical and political reality and the development of both Taiwan and China.
Taiwan never was a part of the People’s Republic of China and never was ruled by the Chinese Communist Party. Today it is a vibrant, open multiparty democracy where its 25 million people decide on the island’s future and where their democracy is cherished. China’s political system, on the other hand, is controlled by the Communist Party – the country’s only political party – with many restrictions and limits on human rights and freedoms.
I would ask the Taoiseach: on what basis does he claim that Taiwan is an alienable part of China? Is he going back over 200 years to the Qing Dynasty and the time of empire, thus ignoring the last century of history and political development and following a logic by which Ireland would return to being a part of the British Empire?
As a democrat, does he not believe in the democratic principle that it is up to Taiwan’s people to decide their own future or is democracy in his view selective and for certain countries or peoples but not for others?
A fairer and more reasonable approach would be for Ireland to support both sides of the Taiwan Strait to work together in a spirit of mutual respect and to develop friendship, trade and cultural exchanges across the strait, while both the Chinese and Taiwanese people sides would forge their own paths at the political and national level.
Many Taiwanese have sacrificed their lives for democracy in their homeland.
For most Taiwanese, there is no going back to authoritarian one-party rule. – Yours, etc,
Fr SEÁN O’ LEARY, C.S.Sp.
Taichong City,
Taiwan.