wfn.org | Name rectification essential for Taiwan's international relations, says PCT

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>      Taiwan Church News

>3030 Edition

>March 22~28, 2010

Name rectification essential for Taiwan's international relations,  says PCT

>Reported by Sam Lee

>Written by Lydia Ma

“Is Taiwan an independent country or not?” It seems the  jury is still out on 
this question – even

among pro-Taiwanese groups. But the question was so important that  World 
United Formosans

for Independence (WUFI), PCT and 17 other organizations called a  panel 
discussion to discuss

>it.

For the most part, participating organizations agreed that Taiwan  had all the 
preconditions

necessary to make it an independent country, but still needed  confirmation 
from a legal

perspective. According to PCT Associate Secretary Kho Sing-doh,  rectifying 
Taiwan’s name,

which is a means to awaken national identity, must start from  everyday life.

This panel discussion took place on March 20~21 in Changhua and  Rev. Kho was 
one of the

guest speakers. He emphasized that a country’s name played an  important role 
in national

identification, which is why rectifying Taiwan’s name was an  important part of 
Taiwanese

>nationalism.

Rev. Kho encouraged every person, family, and organization to  rectify Taiwan’s 
name in their

daily lives and awaken national identity by referring to Taiwan as  a country 
in their daily speech.

This means getting rid of some old speaking habits when referring  to Taiwan 
and China and no

longer using terms such as “the whole province”,  “Mainland”, “cross-strait 
relations”, etc. Instead,

Taiwanese ought to think of Taiwan and China as separate and equal  entities.

“As long as Taiwanese people can’t identify with this  land or call themselves 
“Taiwanese”, they

will remain a colonized nation,” said Rev. Kho. He added that  the past two 
years under the Ma

administration has added impediments to Taiwan’s name  rectification and 
further confused

people’s sense of identity. To make his point, Rev. Kho cited  as example that 
PCT had recently

received an invitation to host events celebrating the “100th  anniversary of 
the Republic of

>China”.

After some discussion, WUFI Deputy Secretary-General Chen  Kuo-hsiung announced 
WUFI

believed that Taiwan possessed all the qualifications necessary to  be an 
independent country,

but the legality of Taiwan’s independence still needed  confirmation. Such a 
conclusion was

generally met with approval and support from every organization  present at the 
conference.

Besides discussing the creation of a new constitution and  rectification of 
Taiwan’s name, other

issues covered during this conference were the amalgamation of 5  cities and 5 
counties into 5

megacities and related elections set at the end of the year, 2012  presidential 
election, closing

the gap between rich and poor, boosting Taiwan’s  international relations, and 
opposition to

>ECFA.

According to economist Wang To-far, if Taiwan signs an ECFA with  China, the 
gap between

the rich and the poor will widen significantly, national  unemployment rate 
will soar, and Taiwan

will lose its sovereignty. Taiwan’s future might mirror Hong  Kong’s fate after 
1997. Hence,

Wang urged Taiwanese to support an ECFA referendum and use it as a  means to 
fight

>unrighteousness.

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