w The Michigan Daily- Wednesday, December 11, 1991 - Page 5
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A free Taiwan
To the Daily:
This is in response to Peter
Davidson's letter (11/15/91), in
which he makes inaccurate
statements on the issue of Taiwan
independence. I would like to
comment on three points.
First of all, Mr. Davidson says
that Taiwan's "unique" and
"tragic" history does not justify
independence. Here Mr. Davidson
ignores the fact that in human
history each big transition derives
rfrom its existing conditions.
Theories or personal wishes
cannot arouse a revolution.
Instead, the reality fertilizes the
soil of a revolution. In actuality, it
is Taiwan's "unique historic
circumstances" that leads to the
growth of the Taiwanese indepen-
dence movement.
To understand the forming of
this movement, we have to review
Taiwan's history. In the last 400
years, this island has been
chronologically ruled by the
Dutch, Koxinga pirate regime,
Ching dynasty, Japanese and
KMT (Kuomingtang). The
Taiwanese people have been
defeated and brutally repressed
again and again.
Finally, they realized that
without establishing an indepen-
dent country, Taiwan will be
6epeatedly colonized by other
countries and that there is no real
democracy and liberalization
under a colonial rule. The
Taiwanese independence move-
ment is not an abstract ideology.
Instead, it comes from reality. It is
a lesson that the Taiwanese
learned through continuous
oppression and struggles.
Secondly, Mr. Davidson
wrongly stated that Taiwanese
would rather enjoy democracy
and their "economic success"
under the rule of KMT than
establish an independent country.
I would like to say that he failed
to see the nature of a totalitarian
regime like KMT. Basically,
KMT is a government against the
Taiwanese people. It may tolerate
more parliamentary seats taken by
the opposition party or erect new
laws, but still it wants to maintain
iA totalitarian form of government
in order to keep its privileges and
acquired profits.
Therefore, KMT is unable to
initiate any real political or
economic reform. More and more
Taiwanese understand that to
accomplish democracy and to
secure their economic success
they have to establish their own
country.
Mr. Davidson also claimed
that KMT wants to return to the
mainland to establish control over
all China. In fact KMT has given
up returning to China since the
50s. "Recovering the mainland"
has only been used as an excuse
to impose a totalitarian rule upon
Taiwan. In 1954, Chiang Kai-
Shek, late KMT dictator, had
confessed to then U.S. Secretary
of State John Dulles that he would
not retake mainland China.
Mr. Dulles had testified to this
during a session of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee on
Jan. 24, 1955 and this document
was made public in April 1978.
Mr. Davidson should have read
this material before he makes
such an untrue statement.
In his first letter of 10/7/91,
Mr. Davidson admits that he is
not qualified to discuss the issue
of Taiwan independence. Yet, in
his second letter, he ignores
historic facts and biased himself
against the Taiwanese indepen-
dence movement. I only hope that
he will not contradict himself
again.
Yayi Cheng
University graduate and
member of the Michigan
Taiwanese Student
Association
Kristallnacht
To the Daily:
How sad that the recent article
(11/13/91) concerning
Kristallnacht demonstrations
against violence quickly became
an article that succeeded in
characterizing all Germans as
practicing anti-Semites. Instead of
pointing out that demonstrations
against recent neo-Nazi groups
were numerous and successful,
the Daily chose to focus on the
the fact that anti-Semitism is
supposedly once again out of
control in Germany.
The Daily made reference to
the fact that these neo-Nazi
groups were threatening wide-
spread attacks on foreigners on
the anniversary of Kristallnacht.
Interestingly, though, even the
Daily admitted that "very few
such incidents occurred" while
citizens of over 30 cities took part
in demonstrations mourning the
horrific losses which took place
during the Holocaust.
The Daily seemed to want to
ignore this indication that
mainstream Germany is ashamed
of the Holocaust and is trying to
fight the radical elements of
society which may be promoting
these ideas. The author's obvi-
ously biased, and weak attempt at
a German history lesson on anti-
Semitism was despicable. Saying
that the Holocaust was "by no
means an aberration in German
history," was simply wrong. I am
tired of people implying that all
Germans are racist xenophobes.
You also cited a study (the
only study even mentioned in the
article) in which "Two thirds of
all German people held subtly
anti-Semitic views, while the
other one third were blatant anti-
Semites." Are we to believe that
100 percent of all Germans are
anti-Semitic? This certainly does
not seem like a credible source to
me.
What characterizes a "subtle"
racist anyway? What are the
results of similar studies done in
the United States? I would be
willing to bet that if the same
study were done here, one could
manipulate any form of questions
or studies to prove that a large
amount of Americans also hold
"subtle" or "blatant" anti-Semitic
views.
Also regarding the recent
"plague" of attacks on immi-
grants, a newspaper must provide
facts to back up damaging
statements, or they tend to be less
believable. We in the United
States are also "plagued" with
attacks on immigrants,thomosexu-
als, minorities, etc. Yet, this
article seems to ask us to accept
that Germany is the only country
with an active anti-Semitic
element.
Theauthor also implied that
the German parliament, by
imposing immigration restric-
tions, is also xenophobic and
racist. How interesting. Germany
has recently been flooded by
immigrants from Eastern Europe
as a result of the sweeping
political changes. The immigra-
tion restrictions were placed to
help protect the German economy
from certain disaster, and is, in
fact, much more open to immi-
grants than the United States'
immigration policy.
It is obvious that the author
never bothered to research the
topic of anti-semitismm in
Germany beyond perhaps the
World Book Encyclopedia.
Instead, the Daily's readers were
subjected to one-sided anti-
German garbage that once again
succeeded in painting the radical
views in Germany as those
accepted by the average citizen.
Katja Rowell
LSA first-year student
Editor's note: The study on
German anti-Semitism, cited in
the editorial, was conducted in
1976 by Alfred Silberman, a
professor of sociology at the
Univesity of Cologne, Germany.
The well-known study has been
cited in numerous historical texts.
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