3 posts tagged “independence”

Are you celebrating Cinco de Mayo?

Um, no—and this question appeared midnight (NZST) on May 6. Why not earlier, Vox? Besides, Mexican independence is September 16.

Being Chinese, I was always raised with the idea that Tibet is not an independent country, something backed up by a history book I remember at college that showed world maps going back many centuries. Certainly by the time the Mongols invaded, China, Tibet and Mongolia were governed as a single empire. However, I believe in the right of self-determination of all peoples, and if the Tibetans believe they should not be subject to the Communist Party, then so be it. That right is no less than the one held by East Timorese or any other group that has wanted to break from a larger nation.
   Many years ago, I understand that Chiang Kai-shek asked if HH the Dalai Lama would fight with him against the Communists and revolt, but that was declined. It remains a historical “could-have-been”.
   On the other side, I have heard from a Communist official who believes that the Dalai Lama is actually the largest landowner in Tibet and his control over the country means that he can impose his will on the peasants there. But remember that Beijing has spun whatever it has liked.
   Wikipedia, interestingly, features both the Tibetan and Red Chinese positions as well as a section on the lack of foreign recognition of Tibet. It also has a map from 1914 that is not unlike the ones I saw at college:

 
   While Wikipedia is not a definitive source, or, as I found while working on Autocade, an accurate source (there are preciously few error-free pages, but I am a lazy ass and want to run facts via Google first, then, grudgingly, get up and go to my reference books) the Tibetan sovereignty article does appear to have both sides recorded accurately.
   That last section reads:

No country publicly accepts Tibet as an independent state ^[32], in spite of several instances of government officials appealing to their superiors to do so ^[33]. Treaties signed by Britain and Russia in the early years of the twentieth century ^[34] and others signed by Nepal and India in the 1950s ^[35], recognized Tibet's political subordination to China. The Americans presented their view on 15 May 1943:

No sovereign states, including India, have extended recognition to the Tibetan Government-in-exile.^[37] This lack of legal recognition of independence has forced even some strong supporters of the refugees to admit that:

   Whatever the case, violence and murder against civilians and the denial of self-determination are what matter right now.
   There must be a better way. The PRC–ROC standoff will probably never be resolved, which is why there has never been an Armistice and why some countries stay on the fence. One writer suggested China be a Commonwealth. It could work, wth representation for Tibetan, Communist and Republican. A solution that has little connection with the past may be one released from politicking, working for the future.

I thought communists were more in to revisionist history than democratic governments. From the Fairfax Press:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4316159a12.html

   I am glad I got to the Republic of China to see the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial before this sort of government-sanctioned vandalism happened.
   The Democratic Progressive Party, indeed. Bit like the German Democratic Republic.
   I can’t speak for those inside the Republic but I would say that the majority of overseas Chinese will react similarly to me. Gen Chiang was not Franco or Stalin.
   The DPP calls Chiang’s Kuomingtang (KMT) repressive. I assume they have romantic notions of what was happening across the Taiwan Strait after 1949—or, for that matter, during the Sino–Japanese War.
   I am not exaggerating: in my time in Taiwan in November I met intelligent people who held beliefs that life was better under Japan than under the KMT, conveniently ignoring massacres such as the Rape of Nanking where hundreds of thousands were slaughtered.
   However, I accept that their positive ideas stem from the fact that some Japanese officials in Formosa did try to be good governors of the island.
   Back then, however, we weren’t talking about two Chinas. When 9-11 happened, it’s not as though Californians were cheery because they were comfortable, while the Twin Towers fell in New York.
   While the KMT did its share of demolishing memorials of Japanese colonialism after the war, it doesn’t make it right.
   My main view is that those of us outside need to respect the wishes of those within who participate in the Republic’s democracy. All we can realistically do from faraway keyboards is create a bit of noise when we are upset, just as we might with the War on Terror or other international matters.
   The Republic’s government also needs to know that this act insults those of us who hope that all of China will be ruled by a free and democratic republic, and whose families left because we did not believe such a China could exist under the Reds.
   Our hope was placed in the last free part of China that remained, that part in exile in Taiwan.
   Sadly, we are not voters in Republican elections. Only the inhabitants of Taiwan are.
   What now? Will a portrait of Mao be erected?
   One wishes that the DPP recognizes that it would not even exist without Chiang and the remnants of the Republican government in exile in Taiwan, but this latest incident suggests it does not.
   From an overseas Chinese view, it’s seen as an acceptance by Taipei that the Communist Party is correct across the Taiwan Strait, doing its work to erase memories that the Chinese people can have freedom.
   Indirectly, this is a slap in the face of the June 4, 1989 protesters in Tiananmen Square.
   Rebranding is something to be done carefully, more so when it comes to national monuments and symbols of national identity. Rebrands are meant to unite, not divide.
   Calling the Memorial the Democracy Memorial Hall sounds well and good on the surface—but divisions and the months of protest suggest the movement is foolhardy.
   For me, there was nothing wrong with calling it by its new name officially, while leaving the traditional lettering honouring Chiang Kai-shek’s memory intact. It was a suitable compromise and a recognition of history. It also reminds people of the freedom that Taiwan enjoys and the setting for its prosperity. Freedom, tolerance and open-mindedness are what separate it from Red China—which is still a dangerous place to visit or invest in, at least without high-level official help.
   Years after the American Civil War, there are still states (Louisiana and Tennessee) that call a certain holiday Confederate Memorial Day—and that does not seem to have harmed the Union.
   So what harm is there to retain the Chiang Kai-shek name in the interests of national unity on the island? Does the DPP seriously prefer disuniting Chinese people?
   At best, this was an ill thought through development.
   At worst, this was a desecration and an affront to traditional Chinese beliefs that memorials to the dead should be respected.
   Talk of independence or a two-China system is dangerous. It would be easy for the Politburo in Beijing to raise its voice—without even threatening violence—and Taipei can watch its stock market index fall. And I would hate to see any of my people suffer once again.
   Part of Taiwan might not know of Maoist suffering under the Reds, but I would never wish for any Taiwanese to be directly reminded of it.
   Beijing itself should not cheer at this latest development at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall as it sets the stage for separatism. During 2008, with worldwide attention focused on the Olympiad, the separatist movement might think it could get away with more mischief than usual.