Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Obama welcome to Hu Jintao contrasts with Congressional response to visit

Michael Richardson

President Barack Obama made sure Hu Jintao, head of the People’s Republic of China, felt welcome and made sure the communist nation’s flags were prominently on display on Washington, D.C. street signs and light poles.

However, protestors led by Tibetans, kept up efforts to show displeasure at the Chinese leader’s visit to the United States with three days of demonstrations.

Beijing’s failed policy on Taiwan

Taipei Times

Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) recently said in Beijing that cross-strait relations must be based on the so-called “1992 consensus,” and stressed China’s objection to Taiwanese independence. He even issued a threat, saying that without this “consensus,” the two sides would not have this current peaceful development.

Chen made the statement in the face of continuing conflict between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) over the existence of such a consensus. Obviously Chen has not learned from China’s past policy mistakes on Taiwan. The long-debated issue on the consensus also highlights the problems of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) cross-strait policy.

Obama meets Hu, reaffirms TRA

Taipei Times

US President Barack Obama voiced hope on Wednesday for a further easing of tensions across the Taiwan Strait as he reaffirmed his commitment to the “one China” policy and to the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), a law passed by the US Congress in 1979 that requires the US to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself.

Welcoming Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) for a state visit, Obama praised a major trade pact sealed last year between China and Taiwan.

ROC forced citizenship on unwary Taiwanese

Chen Yi-nan 陳逸南

The Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed on April 17, 1895, in the Japanese city that lends the treaty its name. It came into effect on May 8 that same year. According to the treaty, Taiwan belonged to Japan, but people living in Taiwan were given the opportunity to choose their nationality by either leaving or staying within two years of the treaty being signed. This ability to choose one’s own nationality is a basic human right.

In the book On Taiwan’s Status and Relations, edited by National Chengchi University history professor Hsueh Hua-yuan (薛化元), it says that the Republic of China (ROC) government announced in January 1946 that the people living in Taiwan had “regained” their status as ROC nationals, which gave rise to diplomatic protests from the UK and the US.

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