Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

A group of pro-Taiwan independence supporters yesterday announced the formation of a new political party, the Taiwanese National Party (TNP, 台灣民族黨).

The party, to be officially established tomorrow, will seek independence for Taiwan through a national referendum.

A group of TNP members made the announcement on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei with the Presidential Office in the background, chanting the slogans “Long live the Taiwanese nation” and “Liberate the Taiwanese nation.”

“We are determined to resort to every possible method to achieve the eventual goal of independence for Taiwan,” said the unofficial leader of the party, Huang Hua (黃華), who used to be an adviser to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

In his Art of War (孫子兵法) military treatise, ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu (孫子) makes a convincing case for the need to ensure good morale in the ranks while undermining that of one’s opponent, adding that this will be a determining factor in a military’s will to fight.

If Sun were alive today and asked to assess the balance of morale in the Taiwan Strait, he would quickly conclude that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is faring much better than the Taiwanese military. A handful of factors in recent years have contributed to this state of affairs, including the inability of Taiwan to keep up with the PLA in terms of modernization of its military, defeatism in the public sphere and lack of a clear mandate from the executive branch.