Taiwanese Don't Share Lee Teng-hui's Vision

Taiwanese Don't Share Lee Teng-hui's Vision
Bevin Chu
October 24, 2005

After years of debating Taiwan and Tibetan separatist zealots and Taiwan and Tibetan independence fellow travelers, I have learned something interesting. I have learned that you don't always need to be able to rattle off an endless stream of facts and statistics about a subject in order to expose anothers' lies. Often all you need is the ability to remain alert to the unintentional but obvious implications of what they are saying.

Consider for example, an October 19, 2005, Taipei Times news report entitled "Taiwanese lack vision for future: Lee":

[Former Republic of China president] Lee [Teng-hui] was in Washington, after traveling from New York and Philadelphia, to visit the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the US National Archives ... Lee ... lauded ... the US, saying it was a shame that Taiwanese lacked such vision ... The former president had some stern words for Taiwan's people, urging them to look to the US for inspiration on how to forge their identity... saying it was a shame that Taiwan has failed to make its own nationals understand what direction the nation is pursuing... he said that Taiwanese are yet [sic] to fully identify with their own nation and do not fully understand their own history... as a result, Taiwanese do not know how hard their ancestors worked to make the nation what it is now ... Lee said that ... what matters the most ... is to allow people to understand the importance of national identity and the direction the nation is attempting to forge for itself ...

Think about what Lee Teng-hui said for a moment.

Lee Teng-hui just admitted to the entire world that the people of Taiwan do not share his vision of an independent "Republic of Taiwan" and he is unhappy about that fact.

That's quite a startling admission from the self-styled "Moses" of the Taiwan independence movement, who for all these years has been telling anyone who will listen that the people of Taiwan demand political independence from China, and that he and his fellow Taiwan independence zealots were merely responding to the Will of the People.

Now we have an open admission that Lee and Taiwan's Quisling nomenklatura have not been responding to the peoples' grass roots aspirations, but have been dragging the people of Taiwan kicking and screaming toward Taiwan independence against their will!

Still not sure you read that right? Still skeptical? Let's translate what Lee Teng-hui said into plain language.

LeeSpeak: Lee lauded the US, saying it was a shame that Taiwanese lacked such vision.

Translation: "Taiwanese" [i.e., Chinese people on Taiwan] don't want what Lee wants. Taiwanese don't share Lee's dream of a politically independent "Republic of Taiwan." Lee considers this fact a lamentable "lack of vision" on the part of Taiwanese.

LeeSpeak: The former president had some stern words for Taiwan's people, urging them to look to the US for inspiration on how to forge their identity.

Translation: "Taiwan's people" are a disappointment to Lee Teng-hui. Unlike Lee Teng-hui, "Taiwan's people" have no interest in "forging a new identity." Unlike Lee Teng-hui, they already have an identity they are perfectly happy with. They are Chinese.

LeeSpeak: It was a shame that Taiwan has failed to make its own nationals understand what direction the nation is pursuing.

Translation: It is a shame that Taiwan's Quisling nomenklatura has been unable to convince the Chinese people on Taiwan that they must redefine themselves as "Taiwanese, not Chinese" and fight a war of independence to establish a "Republic of Taiwan."

LeeSpeak: Taiwanese are yet [sic] to fully identify with their own nation and do not fully understand their own history.

Translation: Lee, who in his heart of hearts secretly considers himself Japanese, is frustrated because despite five decades of "Japanization," Taiwanese still identify with their motherland China, instead of their colonial occupier and oppressor Japan. Lee is frustrated because despite two decades of flagrant historical revisionism, Taiwanese still realize their own history is Chinese history, not Japanese colonial history falsely relabeled as "Taiwanese history."

LeeSpeak: Lee said that what matters the most is to allow people to understand the importance of national identity and the direction the nation is attempting to forge for itself.

Translation: What matters the most is to brainwash the Chinese people on Taiwan into thinking of Chinese as congenitally inferior and aspiring to be something else, something "better."

There you have it, straight from Lee Teng-hui's own mouth. The people of Taiwan do not share Lee Teng-hui's vision of a nominally sovereign "Republic of Taiwan" independent of China but in fact a Manchukuo style puppet of Japan, and this fact leaves him frustrated and angry.

As I said, you don't need a photographic memory. You don't need the ability to regurgitate an endless stream of facts and statistics. You only need to remain alert to the obvious implications of your opponents' own statements.