Editorials: September 2007 Archives

The following is a paid advertisement which was published in The New York Times and The Washington Post on September 17, 2007. As this is a very important document, we decided to publish the full text on this web site in the hope that all those whose freedom to read is restricted or censored or suppressed entirely, have an opportunity to read this document. The author is Kwang-Ming Koo ( 辜寬敏 ),  the former Senior Advisor to the President of Taiwan.

The reproduction of this advertisment is with permission of Mr. Koo.

DON'T PUT TAIWAN'S DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM BACK INTO A BOX
◎ Koo Kwang-ming 辜寬敏

"A long, long time ago..." are the words that many of the old stories begin with. Today, I would like to share with you a true story about Taiwan that the US and the world have deliberately ignored for a long, long time. I believe that maybe 70 percent to 80 percent of the US public knows that Taiwan is a country. At the same time, however, maybe only 1 percent of Americans know that Taiwan is not a member of the UN, and maybe only 0.001 percent know why this is so.

The truth I want to tell you about is this: our country, Taiwan, has been isolated by the UN in an act of political discrimination that has lasted for more than 36 years. It is the only country in the world to be denied UN membership. The human rights of 23 million Taiwanese have been ignored by the UN for a long, long time, and the US government has helped making it the case. Just as Ralph Ellison said that African Americans once were the invisible man of American society, Taiwan is now the "invisible" member of the international community.

What is worse is that omit to the democratic Taiwan has been living in the shadow of China's constant threat. China has now deployed almost 1,000 missiles aimed at Taiwan and is threatening annexation of Taiwan at any time. Although China is a totalitarian and dictatorial communist state, the US unfortunately has sided with the Chinese dictatorship to suppress Taiwan's democracy. This is both incomprehensible and deplorable. The US government called Iraq a terrorist state and stood up against Iraq when it invaded Kuwait, but chooses to look at China's military expansion and intimidation with one eye closed. I must admonish the US government: "Washington's appeasement of China resembles nothing but the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler prior to the Second World War! "
 
If "Taiwan is not a state", the U.S. has the responsibility

Dennis Wilder, the senior director of East Asian Affairs on the US' National Security Council, recently said that "Taiwan is not a state." This has outraged and humiliated the Taiwanese people.  But we also felt a sense of relief when he added that Taiwan issue has been left undecided for a long long time.  The U.S. government has finally decided to face a fact that it has turned a blind eye to for half a century. The truth is: Taiwan is a country with 23 million people, who can freely elect their own leaders. We have the capacities to exercise our sovereign powers both domestically and on the international front. The US government's refusal to recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state cannot challenge the reality that Taiwan has been a sovereign state for decades.