Editor, Amandala

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Dear Editor:

Marie-Therese Belisle Nweke’s article “Belize and the Two Chinas” (Amandala, Sept. 27, 2024) does a good job discussing the unresolved international status of Taiwan, up to a point. However, like so many other media voices, she misses the hopes and aspirations of many Taiwanese for a nation of their own, apart from the two Chinas.

Taiwan, long called Formosa, was former Japanese territory until the end of World War II. The United States imposed the Republic of China on the island after the war to process surrendering Japanese soldiers. Then, because of the Chinese civil war and the victory of the Communist People’s Republic of China, the exiled ROC was granted a safe haven in 1949. And the Chinese regime never left. The ROC ruled Taiwan for the following four decades with a harsh and cruel martial law. Because of the Cold War and the United States’ political decisions, the Taiwanese were left stateless under a Chinese occupation government. To this day, the United States opposes Taiwanese independence.

The ongoing status quo of Taiwan is one of a “strategic ambiguity,” rendering 23 million people stateless, and at risk of invasion by the PRC, the so-called “mainland” China. Taiwan, until the United States imposed the ROC, was not under any Chinese control since 1895. The PRC, which seeks so-called “unification”, never has exerted any control over the former Formosa. While the two Chinas argue over “one China” the Taiwanese are left out of the picture. A federal appellate court in Washington, DC, has called the people “stateless” and living in “political purgatory.”

The PRC, using its massive size and power, has forced the other nations of the world to either recognize it or Taiwan as the real China. That is why the ROC is down to a dozen or so small countries that recognize it. Why cannot Taiwan be its own country? Why cannot Belize recognize both the PRC as China, and Taiwan as Taiwan? The answer is because there are two Chinas.

It is time to rewrite history and grant the Taiwanese self-determination. Let the Taiwanese decide if they want to be a part of either China, or have their own nation, their own flag. Sadly, the two Chinas do not want Taiwan to be Taiwan. One China wants to invade; the other China is an exiled occupation government. There is no Republic of Taiwan. That is why Taiwanese athletes must compete in the Olympics as Chinese Taipei. That is why Taiwan is not in the United Nations.

Belize, with its own colonial history, should be more sensitive to the desire of many Taiwanese for independence. It is not simply a choice between the PRC and the ROC. Help make room for Taiwan to be its own nation and end the political purgatory imposed by the United States. Taiwan’s unresolved status leaves it at risk of military invasion by mainland China. The unresolved status also keeps the occupying China in control with its authoritarian ways. The people of Taiwan do not enjoy the protection of a jury system. Juries are not the Chinese way, for either China. Let Taiwan be Taiwan.

Michael Richardson