Chinese Nationalism
China emerged from World War II as a great power, in name and in fact. The former United Nations Far Eastern Commander was correct when he said of the Chinese people:
"At the turn of the century, efforts toward greater sovereignty produced the start of a nationalist urge. This was further and more successfully developed under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek. Through the past fifty years the Chinese people have thus become militarized in their concepts and in their ideals. They now constitute excellent soldiers, with competent staffs and commanders. This has produced a new and dominant power in Asia..." In spite of victory, the Chinese people is profoundly distrustful of their traditional foes, Japan and Russia, no matter what they are told to believe. We successfully resisted, and then with the cooperation of our gallant allies, disposed of the so-called invincible Japanese army. And now, after the great Chinese people have driven away the Russian agents, then and then only, can China fulfill her natural role as the bulwark of Asian peace.
The Treason of 1895
Taiwan, key to the South Seas and bastion of the China Coast, was treacherously ceded to Japan together with the strategic Panhu or Pescadores Islands in 1895 by the decadent Manchu Court following the inconclusive Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. The perverted Empress Dowager and her degenerate courtiers betrayed the trusteeship of the Empire, bowed to the enemy instead of calling the Chinese people to arms, which would have certainly defeated the Japanese. When the Taiwan people and their leaders learned about their lot, they protested and revolted, and the local war of resistance continued for five years. The fire of revolution never died during the whole period of Japanese occupation. In spite of Japanese tortures, peasant revolts occurred almost every year and these sometimes assumed alarming proportions.
Key to the China Coast
Taiwan and Panhu guards the Eastern or maritime flank of the Chinese mainland. In the hands of a hostile maritime power, they could be used to blockade the China Coast and bomb cities and transportation lines of the Eastern part of our country. They are, therefore, absolutely essential to the security of China. The Chinese people fought a ruthless and treacherous enemy for eight years in order to restore Taiwan and Panhu to the Fatherland, and this right has been recognized solemnly by our great allies—the United States and Britain, in the Cairo Declaration of 1943.
Shipping routes from the Far East to the South Seas, the Indian Ocean and Suez have to pass through the Taiwan Strait, one of the great thoroughfares of world navigation. This strategic area is 350 kilometers long, 100 to 150 kilometers wide, and guarded by the great island of Taiwan and the naval fortress of Panhu, midway between Taiwan and the Fukien Coast. Taiwan itself possesses two important naval bases, Keeling in the North and Kaoshung in the South. Both have deep and protected harbors, excellent anchorage with modern port facilities, and are connected with each other by rail and highways. The rocky Panhu Archipelago encloses within its ramparts a deep and spacious bay accommodating the naval base of Ma Kun. The French fleet occupied the Panhu Islands during their aggressive war against our country in 1884. The French admiral Courbet considered it as an excellent naval base for operations in the China Seas. This is the authoritative opinion of a representative imperialist strategist.
During World War II, the Japanese aggressors used, Taiwan and Panhu as operation bases, firstly against our country, then against our Allies during the Malayan, Philippine and Indonesian, campaigns. Throughout the eight years of the Sino-Japanese War, they were used effectively for the blockade of China. Enemy aircraft based in Taiwan penetrated as far as Hankow during the first phase of their aggressive war.
Show-Window of Democracy
After the unconditional surrender of Japan, Taiwan and Panhu were restored to China in accordance with the Cairo Declaration. But now before the peace treaty with the enemy is written, the World is again divided into two camps. The Western Powers are at present engaged in a gigantic struggle with Russia, not only in Europe, but also in Asia, with Taiwan as a bastion of the West. So far as Asia is concerned, the out-come will most probably be decided not in years, but in decades, and most likely not by armies and dollars, but by the degrees of perfection of the governments which the predominant influences can bring into being. Oriental peoples with few exceptions reached their maturity long ago; they are not impressed by political ideologies, but like to see concrete results. The West must be able to offer justice, security and economic wellbeing in order to win their hearts, and retain Asia in the Western orbit. It is in this respect, it seems to me, that Taiwan should serve as a show-window of progressive and enlightened democracy, as an Asian demonstration center of the Four Freedoms, in contradiction with the totalitarianism of the backward Russians.
A guest at dinner when all the bowls had been emptied said to his host:
"Could we not have the candles lit?"
"A bit early, isn't it?" said the host.
"Well, at any rate we can see nothing on the table."