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Even though Archipelago of Pescadore, which belongs to Taiwan
today, had been a part of Chian, Taiwan did not become Chinese
territory until Chin dynasty conquered the Koxinga's regime on
Taiwan in 1693. During the Chin dynasty control, Taiwan was a
domestic colony for 212 years and was given to Japan in 1895.
Taiwan became a Japanese colony for the next 50 years.
In 1895, the Taiwanese declared the establishment of the Taiwan
Democratic Republic, but its original intention was prevention for
a Japanese takeover and restoration of Taiwan to the Chin dynasty.
Within a few months the Japanese destroyed the Taiwan Democratic
Republic, but the Taiwanese continued their guerrilla warfare
against the Japanese until 1902.
There were armed uprisings intermittently until 1916. After 1916,
the Taiwanese engaged in modern anti-Japanese Taiwan nationalistic
movements in Tokyo, China, and Taiwan. During the whole Japanese
period, except for a few occasions, most of the anti-Japanese Taiwan
nationalistic movements had used the "Independence of Taiwan" as the
slogan. For example, the Taiwan Communist Party, which was formed
in 1928, had the overthrow of the Japanese imperialist control of
Taiwan and the establishment of an independent Taiwan as a part of
the party constitution. Moreover, Mao Tse-tung, in an interview
with Edgar Snow on July 16, 1936, stated that the Chinese Communist
Party would assist the Taiwanese as well as the Koreans in their
anti-Japanese struggle for independence.
II. Independence Movements
during the Nationalist Government Control
Initially, the Taiwanese (including aborigines) accepted the
Nationalist Government control of Taiwan after the Japanese
surrender in 1945, without much resistance. However, Chinese
Governor Chen Yi's oppression and exploitation of the Taiwanese,
which exceeded that of the Japanese, were more than the Taiwanese
could bear, and it culminated in the island-wide anti-Chinese
uprising of February 28, 1947.
There were a few conferences of the Taiwanese revolutionaries
in Hong Kong during the summer of 1947. Among major members were
Thomas Liao, who went to Shanghai before the February 28 uprising
and Hsieh Hsuehhung, who was a member of the Taiwan Communist
Party and who escaped from Taiwan after the uprising. However,
the Chinese Communist Party started to gain power in the Chances
Civil War and it affected the solidarity of the Taiwanese
revolutionaries.
Thomas Liao and his non-communist followers established the
Formosan League for Reemancipation and the Formosan People's
League, and appealed a few times to the U.N. for temporarily
putting Taiwan under U.N. trusteeship and for the future
plebiscite for independence. Hsieh and her communist followers
were in line with the Chinese communist Party and established
the Taiwan Democratic Autonomy League. The league eventually
moved to Peking, but Hsieh and other key members were purged by
the Chinese Communist Party and it merely retains its existence
today.
Near the end of 1949, when the People's Republic of China was
established in Peking, Thomas Liao and his group moved to Tokyo,
and in cooperation with a group of Taiwanese compatriots under
the leadership of Wu Chen-nan, established the Taiwan Democratic
Independence Party whose slogans were anti-Chiang, anti-Communist,
complete independence of Taiwan ,and establishment of a peaceful
welfare state in Taiwan. Because of the arrest of Thomas Liao by
the occupation army of General MacArthur due to Chiang's request,
the movement lost the leadership. However, as the occupation was
ended in 1952, the independence movement regained the momentum
and established the Taiwan Republic Provisional Government in
Tokyo, on February 28, 1956. Notwithstanding these activities,
the Taiwan Democratic Independence Party was rather weak because
of the limited number of members, the sabotage by the Nationalist
Government, the arrogance of Thomas Liao and internal power
struggle.
Young compatriots, around 500 Taiwanese students in Tokyo, who
became disenchanted by the Taiwan Democratic Independence Party,
established the Taiwan Youth Association (Taiwan Chenglien Sha or
Taiwan Seinen Sha) on February 28, 1960, under the leadership of
Ong Jik-tik. They started the party monthly Taiwan Seinen (Taiwan
Youth) in Japanese and Formosan Quarterly in English. They actively
engaged in the Taiwan Independence Movement. The Taiwan Democratic
Independence Party lost its influence when Thomas Liao surrendered
to the Nationalist government and went back to Taiwan on May 14,
1965. Meanwhile, Taiwan Seinen Sha changed its title to Taiwan
Seinen Kai and then to Taiwan Dokuritsu Renmei (Taiwan Youth
Independence League), and extended its activities worldwide. Taiwan
Freedom Independence Party which was established in Nagoya in
February, 1961, merged with the Taiwan Independence Compatriots
Organization in 1967, and formed the Taiwan Dokuritsu Sodomei (
Taiwan Independence Union). They have been cooperating with Taiwan
Youth Independence League. The Nationalist government had tried to
pressure the Japanese government to restrict the Taiwan Independence
Movement and they placed secret agents in major universities to
spy on Taiwanese students, to threaten or bribe some Taiwanese to
become informers and to arrest some students who returned to Taiwan
for summer visits. The Nationalist government also directly put
pressure on relatives in Taiwan of independence movement leaders.
It was reported the Japanese government resisted the pressure by
counter-claiming that the Nationalist government allows some
Okinawans to engage in the Okinawa independence movement activities
in Taiwan.
Independence movements which center around students are wide-
spread among 20,000 Taiwanese in Japan; 20,000 in U.S.A.; 30,000
in Brazil; 1,000 in Canada, and 10,000 in Europe. It was in January,
1956, the Committee for Formosans' Free Formosa was established in
Philadelphia. The next year, it was changed into United Formosans
for Independence (which changed to United Formosans in America for
Independence -UFAI- in 1967, and to World United Formosans for
Independence -WUFI- in 1970) and started the publication of "Ilha
Formosa," and actively engaged in the movement. April 24, 1970,
two WUFI members tried to assassinate Vice Premier Chiang Ching-kuo
who was on visit to U.S. In Canada, the Committee for Human Rights
in Formosa was formed on September 4, 1964. In Europe, small frag-
mented Taiwanese groups in various countries were united into the
Union for Formosa's Independence in Europe in February, 1967.
The fact that Taiwan is an island isolated by the sea, that
there was dramatic bloodshed and massacre after the February 28th
revolutionary uprising, and that there has been strict martial law
in Taiwan since May 20, 1949 (the Nationalist government moved to
Taiwan on December 8, 1948) have made it impossible to have any
open public independence movement. However, many deep-rooted anti-
government activities have been continually publicized by announce-
ments of indictments, sentencing, and executions by the secret
police under the dictatorial regime. Many arrests were reliably
reported and many leaders were executed by the article of Statute
of Treason and Sedition. A good example is that of the Peng Ming-
min incident. Professor Peng was Chairman of the Political Science
Department of National Taiwan University. He, with two of his
former students, co-signed and distributed the Declaration of
Taiwan Independence in which they advocated the overthrow of the
Nationalist government and the establishment of a new, free,
democratic nation by the will of the Taiwanese. This nation would
be independent and separate form the People's Republic of China.
They were promptly arrested, but he was lightly sentenced to eight
years' imprisonment because he is an internationally known scholar.
After substantial pressure and bad publicity in the international
press, he was pardoned (essentially changed to house arrest).
Professor Peng escaped from Taiwan on January 2, 1970, and took
political asylum in Sweden.
III. Independence Movements since 1970
Peng's escape was a turning point in the movement. On January
15, 1970, the Taiwan Freedom League in Taiwan, the Taiwan Cheng-
lien Independence League in Japan, the United Formosans in America
for Independence (successor to UFI) in the U.S. and Brazil, the
Committee for Human Rights in Formosa in Canada, and the Union
for Formosa's Independence in Europe all joined and came together
under the banner of World United Formosans for Independence (WUFI).
WUFI established its general headquarters in Kearny, New Jersey
and headquarters in Taipei (Taiwan), Tokyo(Japan), Toronto(Canada),
and Vienna(Austria). WUFI publishes Tai-Dok in Taiwanese, Taiwan
Chenglien in Japanese, and an English edition of Independent Taiwan.
these three represent official voices and WUFI's activities are
spread globally under the guidance of Professor Peng as a senior
adviser.
On October 25, 1971, the Republic of China seat in the U.N.
was given to the People's Republic of China and there have been
numerous official recognition's of the People's Republic of China
as the legitimate representative of China and the normalization
of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China by
many countries. This worsening international position of the
Nationalist government of the Chiangs has prompted many Taiwanese
who have been forced by fear to take rather inactive and neutral
positions to focus their increasing attention to the independence
of Taiwan. Its significance can be observed not only in the world
outside Taiwan, but also inside Taiwan itself. For example, on the
occasion of the Nixon visit to Peking on January 2, 1972, a Taiwan
Presbyterian Church with 200,000 members proclaimed in about 700
churches around the island the right of self-determination of their
fate and the opposition to the sell-out of Taiwanese to the People's
Republic of China. On December 24, 1972, Taiwanese Christians
Living abroad formed an organization called "Formosan Christians
for self-determination" headquartered in New York. They again
proclaimed the right of the Taiwanese for self-determination.
Representatives of fraternal associations of the Taiwanese in Japan,
the United States, Canada, Brazil and Europe voluntarily gathered
in Vienna and established the World Federation of Formosan Clubs.
Since 1970, the independence movement has been advocating
publicly the cooperation between Taiwanese and Chinese in Taiwan
who identify Taiwan as their permanent home.
In sum, the Taiwan independence movement is based upon the
fact that fifty years of Japanese colonization and modernization
policies have forged a new Taiwanese nation distinctly separate
form the exploitation and the oppression of the Taiwanese by
Chiang's Nationalist government, the emergence of the People's
Republic of China in the international political stage; and the
expulsion of the Nationalist government from the U.N. all prompted
and revitalized the activities of the independence movement.
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