Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Lift the veil of ambiguity and we will suddenly become bright and cheerful to notice the graceful and beautiful figure of Formosa. It turns out that Taiwan was permanently ceded to Japan by the Qing Emperor on April 17, 1895. There was no affiliation between the two.

On Sept. 5, 1951, John Dulles — then a former US senator who would later become US secretary of state — spoke at the San Francisco Peace Conference. He clearly informed the world that the Pacific War had been prolonged for six years because of the awkward environment in the international community.

Beijing has repeatedly appealed to the emotions of Taiwanese, seeking to convince them that by speaking a similar language, sharing folklore festivities and having common kinship, people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are all “descendants of the legendary emperors Yan and Huang” (炎黃子孫) and must therefore be bonded together in a “great motherland” called China.

If it only knew how its actions have undermined its popularity with Taiwanese, as it has managed only to enforce the belief that the two sides of the Strait are worlds apart.