Two American scholars living in Taipei, Jerome Keating and Richard Hartzell, have entered the fray about Taiwan’s status and future. Keating is a retired college professor and author while Hartzell is a linguist and legal researcher. Both men care deeply about Taiwan and are sharp critics of Ma Ying-jeou’s administration of the Republic of China in-exile.
Taiwan is caught in a limbo that is six decades-old and described by the District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals as “political purgatory” imposed on the island by the United States. The “strategic ambiguity” that has been the cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy since World War II once protected Taiwan but now leaves the island threatened with military invasion by the People’s Republic of China.
Last year the federal appellate court urged President Barack Obama to act “expeditiously” to resolve Taiwan’s status. Thus far the White House has not responded to the court.
Richard Hartzell has been a central figure in the effort to unravel a path to independence for Taiwan and has focused his attention on the San Francisco Peace Treaty and international law. Hartzell believes the United States has an unmet responsibility under the 1952 treaty with Japan that officially ended World War II.
Hartzell believes the United States should assist the Taiwanese people with nation-building as a duty under the treaty and allow them to create a clear pathway to self-determination independent of the ruling Chinese Kuomintang government.
Hartzell has recently returned to Taiwan following a lecture tour in the United States where he expounded on his views of American treaty responsibilities to the people of Taiwan. Hartzell’s advocacy is getting some traction as more people become aware of his legal research.
Keating, author of Island in the Stream: A Quick Case Study of Taiwan’s Complex History, is well versed on Taiwan’s history and wrote of 1950 Taiwan independence movement based in Japan, the Taiwan Democratic Independence Party, crushed in 1965 by the Kuomintang..
Keating has also written of the 1970 efforts of the Taiwan Independence Alliance and reported on the efforts of Su Beng as well.
However, Keating now is taking on Hartzell and has written a blog entry accusing Hartzell of advocating a “back door” approach and suggests that Taiwan is already independent because democratic elections have come to the exiled Republic of China government.
Keating might want to reread his own book on the “back door” of the San Francisco Peace Treaty. Keating wrote, “There is much that has been written on Taiwan in the past fifty years, but the many unanswered questions indicate that there is much still to be written.”
“What was the exact relationship of Taiwan and the ROC? In the San Francisco Treaty of 1952, Japan had given up its sovereignty over Taiwan, the Pescadores and other territories; but the treaty did not state to who the sovereignty of these areas would be given.”
Source: Michael Richardson - Boston Progressive Examiner
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